Should Boys Start Kindergarten a Year Later Than Girls? Should parents have option of delay? Should kids be month grouped to classes?

Question

What the research says

Studies of redshirting have found pros and cons. Some research has found that any boost in achievement fades away as children get older. Redshirting could increase high school dropout rates because older students would reach the legal age for quitting school earlier. It could also disadvantage men by delaying their entry into the job market.

The older students consistently scored higher on tests in third grade and, to a lesser extent, eighth grade. They were more likely to attend college and less likely to go to jail as juveniles. The findings were true for children of all backgrounds, but especially for boys and for children from low-income family. These traits, which girls tend to develop earlier, have been shown to be crucial to academic success.

Children develop this kind of self-control through pretend play, and older children probably spent more time doing that in high-quality, play-based Danish preschools.

A study of 400K children in every state found that those with birthdays just before the kindergarten cutoff were significantly likelier to be diagnosed with ADHD than those with birthdays just after the cutoff.

What else could help, if not redshirting?

A better alternative to redshirting all boys, some researchers said, would be to make it optional for any student so that parents could choose whether it was right for their child, with advice from teachers and the option to attend an extra year of public pre-K.

An easier change, some said, would be to make the cutoff date for kindergarten earlier, so all children would turn 5 at least a few months before they start. Teachers could group classes by birth month, with the older kindergartners together in one class and the younger ones in another.

Also, schools could restore more of the play-based learning — like dress-up, art and nature exploration — that was much more common in kindergarten before 2000.

MuddyMole · Accepted Answer

The impact of birth months is certainly quite interesting. I remember a book called "Outliers" (I forget the author), which discusses evidence that both professional hockey players and the CEOs of the 100 largest corporations, are statistically far more likely to have been among the oldest kids in their school year.

I'm not sure it has much to do with kindergarten though - it's the fact that throughout their entire school life, they are always going to be older than their peers, which often means more mature and physically larger. Of course, astrologists would put it down to your month of birth determining your sun sign...

Here in the UK, it's very common for primary schools to have two year groups combined in each class, meaning children effectively alternate between being among the oldest and the youngest in their class each year.
It's also not all that uncommon for younger children to be held back a year, or for older ones to be moved up a year (for example, my brother was born in October, which would have made him one of the older kids in his year, but he was moved up a year, making him the youngest).

Obviously, other countries have very different education systems as well. My girlfriend is Swedish, and hated having to send her kids to primary school here at age 5, as she felt it was far too young - in Sweden, primary school starts at age 7, the same as in Finland (note that both countries also have a much higher standard of education than either the UK or US).

WindAtMyBack · Accepted Answer

For a long time the deadline to start school kept getting pushed later. I think when I started school kids had to turn six years old by the end of October. That was for first grade since we didn't have mandatory kindergarten then. Kindergarten was private only. School always started the Tuesday after Labor Day. Now I think it starts in mid-August.

The date gradually got pushed through November, December and eventually January. Now they have gone back the other direction, which I think is good. Personally I think four years old, going on five, is too early for mandatory school. If they do go to school they should be given lots of breaks and not be given any homework.

My state is now either August or September. It's up to the school district so it's not uniform.

I have a late birthday, and the girl across the street had an October birthday. So we were in the same class even though she was almost a year older than me.

One thing that happens is that each state has it's own rules. So it's possible for a kid to be eligible to start school, then have it delayed a year because they moved to a different state. I've seen parents get caught up in this when moving to another state without realizing their kid couldn't start school in the new state. To say they were irate is an understatement.

CupcakeTheDestroyer · Accepted Answer

My brother and I are 18 months apart. Due to our age differences, he started school one year after me. When I moved on to kindergarten at age 5, he was in preschool at 3/4. But something about his behavior was enough to convince our teachers he wasn’t ready for kindergarten after pre-k, so he was put in pre-k 5, a class for 5 year olds that still had that preschool level of education for socializing purposes. He’s definitely the more social of the two of us, I succeeded academically with no problems, he didn’t but he succeeded socially. I think we put too much stock in academic test scores as a means of measuring children and success.

Apple1996 · Accepted Answer

Nope I got redshirted in kinder and it was not good for me. Pretty much the reason why i worked hard in highschool to graduate a year early. I think kids should be starting school sooner especially boys

Ez-Bri-Z_v2 · Answer

That's gonna be hard to do with MAGA Republicans dismantling the department of education, dont you think. Now everyone is expecting vouchers to attend the schools they want, but not realize they are going to end up paying out of pocket. I suppose that maybe does lend itself to optional start times, but in the worst way imaginable.

Anonymous · Answer

Do more research and if the science backs it with data collected from a controlled group, a group starting same time, and a group starting later or earlier (girl and boys, both tested for different time periods) then sounds good. We must follow the science.

Tarifa · Answer

With small children, I'd say up to the age of 5, even a 6-month's difference in age can be quite significant. But I wouldn't go as far as to separate it by sexes. Boys and girls will catch up with each other along the way. I don't see any difference in academic matters, nor social behaviour, nor maturity by the age of 14.

dustybiker2 · Answer

This isn't a gender thing.  Some kids are more advanced than others, regardless of gender. Some kids of each would benefit from mote time to mature at home.

Likes2drive · Answer

Probably needs more research , I mean everything worked out pretty good from my era way back with schooling and handling that problem

Anonymous · Answer

That would actually be a very good idea developmentally, except then in middle school you'd have all these 14 year old boys fucking 13 year old girls.

Anonymous · Answer

We are homeschooling tight now as the local schools are overcrowded and standards low. Hoping eventually by middle school.

SotiCoto · Answer

Redshirting as in... sending the redshirts on the away missions to get killed off by aliens?

beefcakebradybatson · Answer

I was reading before three and becoming a sports fan at five.

seeyounexttuesday · Answer

we need gender separate learning.

Should Boys Start Kindergarten a Year Later Than Girls? Should parents have option of delay? Should kids be month grouped to classes?

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