Parents often wonder they should enroll their five-year-olds in Kindergarten or hold them back a year. Matthew Ladner, writing for the Jay Greene blog, says that age matters, but not school-starting age.
I've had to make this decision with my four children. I'd been told that if it's a boy with a summer birthday, they should probably be held until they're six to start Kindergarten. I followed that advice with my two sons with August birthdays. Most school districts use the Oct. 1 funding deadline as their cut-off point. Since boys mature slower and they'd rather be the first in their grade level to get a driver's license, rather than the last, I think it was a good decision to hold my two sons for another year.
4 comments:
I was a summer baby and was "small for my age." In my case this created a bullying situation (likely because I was bit of a wiseass).
Until we can educate our society out of the "boys will be boys" mentality and stop writing off bad behavior, I'd say starting boys later is better than earlier.
jt
I wholeheartedly disagree that boys should be held back, at least as a blanket statement.
My birthday was in September, so I began kindergarten at just four years old. I was pleased throughout my academic career to be one of the youngest in my class. Even though I was young, I still graduated high school first in my class. It would have infuriated me if my parents decided to hold me back.
It definitely depends on the individual child, however. Some people are mature enough to handle school earlier than others.
Finally, one woman I knew held her daughters back so she could spend an extra year with them at home, even though they had summer birthdays and were ready for school. That seemed like the most selfish reason possible.
I think some of it depends on the school they will be attending. We held Josh back because he was headed to a rigorous charter school and the Principal didn't feel he was quite ready for it...it was a great move.
Not sure what six76seven means, but I am father of 3 boys and 3 girls, and have taught Sunday school to boys many times. I have not seen the mentality he/she is talking about...I've seen the opposite.
Right now they are NOT being treated different in schools. They are being treated and expected to have the same patience and endurance of girls. Nearly impossible for most boys. so when they don't measure up..we drug em.
Now they have to play sports without a winner because everyone is afraid of someones feelings getting hurt. Their whole world has become femininized.
For a boy to even have a man teacher at any point in his formative years is actually unusual. This must change.
We need to educate our society as to what makes boys tick...and why they have different needs and desires from girls so that education can be tailored to both.
Sitting still for hours is much harder for boys than for girls that is a proven fact.
To clarify what I meant about bad behavior, I was talking about the fact that, all too often, boys who can't keep up intellectually bully those who can (if those boys happen to be smaller physically).
Our society has been based on a "might means right" mentality since forever and this gotten us to the point where "aggressive mediocrity" carries the day.
I agree that we should educate boys differently because they are wired differently. Boys need more emphasis on conflict resolution, and definitely shorter modules and more hands-on learning.
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