I feel that there are ongoing debates in our society on whether it is best to start children in school early or have them wait. I know several people who started school early because their birthday was in the summer and their parents thought it was best for the child because they were ready. But I also know many people whose parents held them back so that they would be older and presumably more advanced. I agree with the author that putting your child in school too early is ineffective and decreases the likelihood for them to be successful. For the example of Phillip, even though he seemed to be advancing academically, he was not ready for the structured classroom, psychologically. I think that’s a good point but the problem with this whole scenario is you don’t know that Philip would not have been exactly the same if he had waited a year to start school.
It discusses in the chapter that there are negative aspects to both sides children starting school early or being held back. If you enroll your child into school too early, their self-esteem might decrease because they won’t initially be as advanced. And if you hold your child back, they might become bored. So, when is the best time to enroll your child in school if they have advanced abilities or learning process? This is an individual decision and one that has to be made on a case to case basis. Again, I feel this book is too anecdotal and does not give concrete data.
Several years ago, I did a group project in one of my education classes, where we researched Red-shirting which in education is when you hold your child back a year from starting kindergarten because the parents want their child to be more advanced when they start school. Research found that by the time children reach middle school, any initial advances are lost and it has been found that starting early didn’t make a difference. The Longevity Project points out that for the Terman participants, those that went to college and or graduate school, while they were indeed more productive, more successful, and more likely to grow personally, but this was really dictated by other factors such as perseverance and conscientiousness. They also found that for those who went on to be better educated and more successful and healthier, it was because they had parents who were more educated. So while education and health might have a positive correlation, they were not really causational.