Start schooling later than age five, say experts

[LWolf]

31. Yes. And NO.

The key words being "the current system," which is dominated by corporate policies that are not educationally sound.

Developmentally, large classrooms with a lot of sitting and listening are not at all appropriate for young children.

What IS appropriate:

Learning through play. Developing fine motor skills with clay and crayons and paints, etc..

Abundant time reading with an adult, one-on-one and small group. Learning group behaviors like listening, taking turns...

Singing, rhymes, poems, etc..

LANGUAGE development: Actual conversations with adults.

Creating their own stories with puppets, toys, etc..

Learning one-to-one correspondence with concrete things...like the things they are playing with.

Building and making things.

Dancing, tumbling, etc...

Learning how to interact with other children in small, safe, environments with supportive adults.

All of that can be done by parents, and some do all or most. Not all parents do these things. Some children come to kindergarten without ever having read a book, without ever having held a crayon, without most of the developmental activities listed above that get them ready for academic learning. And, in the world of high-stakes testing, academics are there in kindergarten.

Not that children can't learn important academic skills in kindergarten; it's just that the rest must come first, and academics must be presented in developmentally appropriate ways.

It's not that children need to stay out of school until they are older. That's a dangerous thing to do, since most of the neural connections that they will need for academic learning are formed by age 4. They just need a system that supports the way they learn.

In the smaller picture, allow pre-school and kindergarten to be developmentally appropriate, and get as many kids there as possible. In the larger picture, dump the damned corporate model with the privatization agenda, and allow the rest of the system to be structured in healthier, more productive, more positive ways.