As with a lot of topics that I feel compelled to address as a professional
I approach the topic I am going to write about
here with great trepidation.
The reason for this apprehension is that the subject is extremely sensitive.
It is for this reason
that I begin with this caveat:
I am not a psychologist or sociologist, and I am not even an economist
or any other kind of
professional data collector/interpreter.
Everything I have
to say on the subject of the age that students should begin school is based
on my 28 years of
experience teaching mathematics
to middle school students.
Until recently there has been a movement to enroll students in school as
soon as a school would accept them. Some of
the reasons for enrolling
students in school at a young age have to do with economics. The
working poor, families that
have a single, working parent,
and families that have both parents working need to have their children
in school as soon as
possible so the parents
can work without having to be burdened with the expense of day-care.
On the other end of the economic scale, families that consist of parents
who are professionals, and families that are
wealthy enough to be able
to afford good day-care, or those that can afford the luxury of a stay-at-home
parent also
wanted their children in
school early. Their reasons were not economic in nature. Their
reasons were generally one or
more of the following:
· They bought into the myth that getting children into structured
classrooms early would somehow give
them a leg up on other children.
· They had been brainwashed by family and friends that their child
seems so much brighter than other
children their age.
· There is some status in being able to say that their child is
not only going to school at a very young age,
but that he is thriving in classes with older children.
Many schools had no problem admitting students into pre-kindergarten, and
even all day kindergarten, even though the
students were a year or
more under age. We seem to have forgotten that pre-kindergarten was
originally developed to
provide children from lower
socio-economic families with a year prior to kindergarten to get their
children prepared for
school. It was determined
that children from more advantaged families got their school readiness
from their parents and
older siblings, and from
the more enriching activities that more affluent families have always provided
for their children,
from birth through college.
Recently the national trend of early placement has gone out of vogue.
(I am personally ecstatic about that). The term
for holding children out
of school so when they begin they are one of the older children in their
class instead of one of the
younger, is called “Red-Shirting”.
That term has been used in reference to sports for many years. And
the tactic of holding
an athlete back for an additional
season of eligibility when he is bigger/stronger/faster has been used for
many years in
sports.
In any event, parents of children who have been placed in school early
will almost always tell anyone who will listen how
well adjusted their child
is and how well he is doing in school. And very often they are correct
in their diagnosis of the
situation. The problem
that I see occurring doesn’t appear until around 6th grade. The problem
is with the younger
students’ inability to deal
with math topics that their classmates are ready for, but they aren’t.
You just can’t rush the
developmental readiness
that is required to master the abstract concepts that are prevalent in
the mathematics beyond
arithmetic.
It’s unfortunate that a student’s mathematical developmental readiness
can’t be easily discerned as his physical
development can be.
I have seen it every year of my long career teaching Algebra and Geometry
to middle school students. The number one
reason an otherwise successful
school student is unable to keep up in math is because he lacks the developmental
readiness to be able to
do it. No amount of dedication or outside tutoring can completely
eliminate this deficit. What
usually happens is that
these students never get a chance to catch up with the math skills they
need for mastering the
more rigorous high school
math and science courses. And they often stop taking math and science
courses as soon as
they are allowed to do so,
or they suffer with low/failing grades. They almost always wind up
hating math and/or science
for no reason other than
the frustration that goes along with their inability to master topics that
the other students in the
class are able to handle.
I believe that it is essential for students to be developmentally ready
for the math topics that are being taught. The case
can always be made that
a student can still have a great life even if he never masters advanced
math topics. That
comment is usually proffered
by parents of students who were started in school too young resulting in
a student who can’t
master advanced math topics
because of being developmentally unprepared for the task. These students
are ultimately
denied the opportunity to
be successful in math related professions that they otherwise may have
preferred.
Now that more and more families are “red shirting” their children, those
who don’t feel that their children are
disadvantaged because they
have to compete with older children are crying foul because their children
are now in classes
where the majority of the
students are 6-months to a year older than their children.
In my humble opinion, older is always
better. Even if that
means holding a too young student back in one of the early grades.
As a society we can’t afford to lose
the mathematical talent
that young students possess by having them enrolled in school before they
are ready.
Data from several 7th grade Pre-AP Algebra classes |
