Consider this. What if our kids didn’t start primary school until the age of 7? An interesting article I just read in the UK paper, “The Mirror” suggests that maybe the way we look at education needs a bit of a radical shake up! Why after all are we so compelled for our children to start school. Are they anxious to start down their journey of education? What would be the harm of letting them spend a bit more time without the pressure of more academic outcome? In Europe, here’s the breakdown of when children start school:
EUROPE’S 1ST DAY IN CLASS
Age 4- Northern Ireland, Netherlands
Age 5- England, Scotland, Wales, Hungary, Malta
Age 6- Belgium, Germany, Greece, Spain, France, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Austria, Czech Republic, Portugal, Iceland, Norway, Cyprus, Lithuania, Slovenia, Slovakia
Age- 7- Denmark, Finland, Sweden, Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Poland, Romania
We have so many issues with our public school system in the United States. This week on the Oprah show, Bill and Melinda Gates talked about how they’ve already spent over $1B dollars to shore up our education system just to start to get children graduating. Finland is reported to have the best education system in the world with close to a 100% rate of graduation. They don’t start school until they’re 7. I’m not sure if you can draw direct parallels but clearly there does seem to be a correlation between kids being more prepared children for early learning having a direct baring on how they perform and continue to perform.
When we considered whether or not to start our children in kindergarten at 5 (they’re birthday is August 27th and the cut off is September 1st) we tried to think about them as whole people–physical, social, emotional and cognitive. While we believed they could “handle it” and do well, we decided against pushing ahead. They’ll start kindergarten this fall and we couldn’t be more thrilled. More importantly, they’re thrilled and excited and motivated. They’ve got their whole life to be educated and be in school. This is just the start of the journey and we hope to help make that adventure something that’s “sweet” and “fun!”
Posted on August 4th, 2006 by Sam
Filed under: Uncategorized
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