Here’s your scenario: You have child or grandchild who will turn 5 years old on the exact earliest day he or she could legally start Kindergarten. One day earlier and there would be a mandated year’s wait. What kind of decisions will you be making or advising as to whether he or she should start school that year or hold back for a year? Should he/she be the absolute youngest in this year’s class or one of the oldest in next year’s?
As you can tell, I’m still trying to tie up some loose ends on our last topic – namely, what’s the ideal age to start school? By way of review, families are given a little flexibility in Missouri. A child may start Kindergarten as early as 5, but must start ‘school’ (public, private, or home) by age 7. (It’s not clear to me if a child of age 7 could actually start with Kindergarten or not.)
Our earlier discussions started because of a bill that had been introduced in January by State Representative Ian Mackey. That bill would have essentially eliminated that built-in flexibility, lowering that upper limit from 7 to 5.
So, back to our original question: What will you be deciding or suggesting for your child/grandchild?
The arbitrary nature of this hypothetical dilemma tends to underscore the no-right-answer nature of the situation and the wisdom of the flexibility that Missouri provides. It’s a family decision involving several factors other than chronological age. (A good discussion of these ‘readiness’ factors can be seen, among others, at https://health.clevelandclinic.org/child-ready-start-kindergarten/ We could do a whole column here!)
There are also are some apparent fallacies which can needlessly confuse the issue. One example: Aforementioned Representative Mackey’s quote from last time: “You can’t start school at 7 years old. You can’t make that time up.”
The more I’ve thought about this statement, the less sense it makes. Is this a race where one child has a head start?
Suppose, for example, one child starts school at age 5 and another at age 6. Assuming they are in the same class, they will be exposed to the same material at the same time during their school tenure. Typically, then, the younger child will graduate high school at age 17 or 18, the other at 18 or 19, perhaps. But, what kind of ‘catching up’ has the older child had to do? Mr. Mackey’s perceived concern that ‘you can’t make that time up’ is misplaced.
Further, there are overlapping societal and educational changes that add another dimension to the decision. I am not an expert here, but it appears there are two conflicting trends in play. On the one hand, teachers indicate that children are arriving at school with fewer social skills (ability to play well with others, follow directions, etc) that tend to enable more effective learning.
On the other hand, more purely ‘academic’ subjects appear to be filtering down into kindergarten, giving less time for traditional kindergarten activities that help promote learning readiness. (Complicating – not helping – this, in my mind, is the idea of full-day kindergarten. Wasn’t the original idea to gradually help a child ‘get ready’ for being in school all day? How does it help if kindergarten becomes Grade 0 instead?)
All of this has left me with one final lingering question. With our traditional choices and the newest trends, I’m wondering if we might be stealing increasingly more of our children’s time to actually BE children! I’m starting to be pulled in a new direction for me: I wonder if, all other things being equal, another year taken before starting school might not be a bad thing.
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