Kids in America start going to school way too early. A five-year-old kiddos were still in diapers just 3 years earlier! Children of that age should be playing with their toys, enjoying their childhood and not learning how to read and do math problems.
I went to first grade when I was almost 7 years old and I turned out just fine, so what’s all this rush about? The thing is that this early school fever is contagious. The Czech Republic started to accept 5-year-olds into their first grades this year, however, the interest was not high. Both parents and teachers think these children are just too young for school. “They have problems with speech, mostly with pronunciation”, says one of the first grade teachers. Even the Czech child spychologist, Vaclav Mertin, claims that children at 5-years-of-age should be educated in some way but they should not be going to school just yet.
So let me get this straight: the parents are against it, the teachers are against and the child psychologists are against it……so who started this new trend and why??
CZ: Americke deti zacinaji prvni stupen jiz v peti letech, coz je podle meho nazoru trosku brzy. Jen se nad tim zamyslete, pred 3-mi lety byly tyto same deti jeste v plenkach! 5-ti leti mrnousove by si meli hrat pred barakem s micem a skakat gumu a ne aby se ucili cist, psat a pocitat. Ja sama jsem zacala chodit do prvni tridy skoro v 7-mi letech a psat, cist a pocitat umim 😉
Proc se o tom vlastne bavime…od letosniho roku totiz mohou v Cechach do skolnich lavic zasednout i tito 5-ti leti mrnousove. Rodice ani ucitele z tohoto noveho rozhodnuti moc zhavi ale nejsou: “Neumeji dobre mluvit, maji spatnou vyslovnost”, konstatuje jedna z pani ucitelek. Dokonce i detsti psychiatri si nemysli, ze je to dobry napad! “Pokladam za spravne, aby se mladsi deti vzdelavaly, ale nepokladam za moc rozumne, aby chodily driv do skoly,” rekl Vaclav Mertin (detsky psycholog).
Takze si to schrnme: rodice a ucitele jsou proti; detsti psychologove jsou proti….tak proc se tento novy zakon vubec zavedl??
Source: http://www.novinky.cz/zena/deti/189658-petilete-deti-mohou-nove-do-skoly-rodice-to-zatim-prilis-nevyuzivaji.html
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I agree, I went to school when I was 6 (in Czech) and I felt like I was a baby. I could not imagine entering that scary world at the age of 5!
I agree. And here in USA they also expect that your 5 year old will be reading by the time he/she starts school.
Ja si myslim, ze zalezi na kazdem diteti. Dceri je temer pet, zacina cist a pokud ji pani ucitelka v programu preschool nestimuluje, tak se nudi. Uz se tesi do kindergarten. Syn zacal chodit do prvni tridy v CR v 6 letech a priserne se nudil, jakoz i vetsina jeho spoluzaku, protoze s ucenim postupovali dost pomalu. Ted je ve treti tride v public school a je velmi spokojeny. Dnesni deti jsou jine, nez za nasich casu.
Jsem jednoznacne proti tomu,deti by si meli jak rikas hrat dokud to jde.
I went to school for the first time when I was 7 1/2 because I was quite a hopeless case. I liked it, I was climbing trees, while kids of my age were suffering in school.
When I entered world of science, I noticed that I was not so hopeless after all:) Anyway, do kids really need to go to school? I think the school system is outdated…
Deti v USA chodi do skoly mezi 4 a 5 rokem. Je to kindergarten, zacina v srpnu, a jak jsem rekla zahrnuje deti od 4 let, ktere dovrsi 5 let do prosince. Moje dcerka zacala v srpnu, a ted uz cte jednoduche knizky, mame domaci ukoly (cteni, psani, matematiku, popsat obrazky, napsat 3 vetami co delala o vikendu atd.). Taky si myslim, ze je to dost brzo, ukoly se ji nekdy nechcou psat. Ted kdyz vim, co vim, tak sveho syna budu davat do kindergarten o rok pozdeji. Jeste jsem nepodkala rodice, kteri by litovali, ze dali dite do skoly o rok pozdeji, vetsinou lituji, ze rok nepockali. Pokud ale mluvim s ostatnimi rodici, tak v jejich skolach pry tolik domacich ukolu nemaji, hold jsme chytli jeste ke vsemu narocnejsi ucitelku na kindergarten ;o(
I think it is because in the US we do not have a long maternity leave as in the Czech Rep or other European countries. Sometimes families need two incomes and the mother or fathers can not be stay at home parents. The kids have to be in day care or start pre-K but there very good mothers day out programs. I enjoyed every minute of Kindergarten, it was scary but I was learning my letters, meeting new classmates, nap time, reading time in an old bath tub filled with pillows. Now, what children are learning in preK and K was what I learned in first grade. They have plenty of opportunities to be children, I believe. I have noticed that SOME, mine included, Czech mothers, had a tough time letting go especially as I got older and was trying to be independent. Don’t know if that is an American trait or not. Also, there is always the fear here in the US how our children’s academic achievements compare to other countries and the need to be competitive.
We have to consider the differencies between the Czech social environment and the US one..
In US, it is simply “safer” and maybe more useful to have children in pre-school, because, they can develop social skills and they learn interesting things. Where else can children develop social skills? On the street?
I cannot let children running outside by themselves..
It was possible when I was child, we were running outside all the day, beating up each other, developed friendship… not sure how it works now in the Czechland…
My dad learned social skills in the CR: such as swimming in the rybnik, catching fish, making wooden guns, picking cherries along the side of the road, riding bikes everywhere all with his gang of friends and other stuff which I have not yet gleamed from him. He was in a single parent household so he ran wild with his friends but he learned survival skills and has pleasant memories. I guess in the US it would be juvenile delinquency b/c he has not told be everything.
My 6 year old daughter, who is presently in Kindergarten, is doing exactly what I did in the first grade. She is thriving on it, and absolutely loves it. I do not have to push her to do it. My son however, who will be exactly one year behind her in school, prefers to build things, and play with pretend guns, and has no interest in learning to write or even draw. I am of the mindset that every child is different, and that you must evaluate it according to the child’s personality and academic pace. We are on the fence right now about my son entering Kindergarten next year. We may hold him back a year, but will wait to make that decision until later this year. He is very articulate, and gets along well with other children. I won’t take it as a personal failure if he starts Kindergarten at 6 instead of 5. There is much pressure to go the ‘Ivy League’ route from day one.
These comments are really helpful! So I guess it depends on each child….
Vonya, you said to go the ‘Ivy League’ is the trend in America. But how is it going to effect that trend if the child goes to school one year ‘later’? You mean that makes that child look dumb or something?
Here in Ontario, my daughter started at 4 in junior K. She already knew her letters and numbers by then as well. My neighbour’s boy (2 weeks younger), still struggles in school. JK was only 1/2 a day, so was senior K, grade one was a full day. In some schools, it is one full day at school, one full day at home and alternate Fridays. This Sept, the province is starting full day kinder for all kids with 1/2 day teaching, 1/2 day “looking” after. Here parents wanted it. Daycare is VERY expensive for the most part.
Sorry for the late reply…I just tuned back into your blog. Just to clarify, holding one’s child back would not interfere with the ‘Ivy League’ train. If anything, the child would feel more confident of his or her abilities to navigate the academic and social world. I feel though, that there is a trend to push children to excel in so many things at such a young age; not only academically, but to excel in sports and music as well. My friend’s daughter, who is attending a U.C. school had a 4.6 GPA. She was still waitlisted to get in because other prospective students had more extracurricular activities than she. I guess this is supposed to reflect a more ‘well-rounded’ person. It just seems as though we are programming little ‘Stepford’ children with all the pressure we are expected to put on them, in order for them to succeed in this world.
I do think preschool is great though. My kids have thrived in preschool:-)
As a former elementary school teacher, I have to agree we start most American children far too young and they burn out early. But, what do you do with the 4 year old who is in such a literary rich environment that they learn to read early? I was one of those (don’t ask how long ago) and I remember going to school at 4 1/2 reading on a second grade level without support. After two weeks in school, I wanted to quit because the reading book held no challenges. They compromised by splitting my time between first and second grade and that trend continued until high school. Fortunately, we had a high school with some very unique ideas which kept me in school. When I arrived at college, there were a dozen of us in the freshman class with similar experiences. But, I think it’s continued to be a challenge for me.
I wonder if we might ought to wait until children are “ready” to learn to read. Still, that will continue to have mismatches between chronological age and intellectual age. Some say homeschooling is the answer but I can’t say I agree. I really don’t think there is a single “right” or even “best” answer.
Whoever expected that is bound to be disappointed. Our youngest had to start first grade a year late because of his birthday and school regs. By the time, he started kindergarten, he was reading on a second grade level unsupported; in first grade he read on a fifth grade level unsupported. By high school, he was bored and we had to be very strict with him. College didn’t excite him so he didn’t finish. Today, he’s in banking, self-sufficient but making frivolous use of his abilities.
Again, no one said the world was perfect. If he’s contributing to the world and happy, who is to say that’s not the best outcome?
Well, it depends on the child, language used and social context of the group.
I know that Czech speaking children, and most children from Slavic-speaking countries will have those pronunciation problems due to the difficult consonant clusters.
On the flip side, English speaking children need time to know how to read well due to the horrible spelling system the language has.
Raffy, thanks for the reminder. You bring other issues to mind that English speaking children have. Because the language has borrowed from so many others, we have multiple meanings for the same spelling and multiple pronunciations of the same spelling. The word “run” has 50 or more meanings depending on context. I really had not thought of that in years. Research shows the strongest predictor for success in learning to read is the language skill of the primary preschool caregiver. Connected to that is the fact that math development is dependent on reading skills. Math skills are needed for music as well and reading skills control understanding of science and the social skills. Once you start looking at it, it’s like knitting yarn the cat has been in.