Re: study of red****rting (late entrance to kndergarten)

On Jul 22, 6:07=A0pm, Chookie <ehreben...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> In article
> <8b5cfd78-60fc-4886-a4f8-b55aebc0f...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>,
>
> =A0Beliavsky <beliav...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> > NBER has a new study on the effects of red****rting. The abstract is at
> >http://papers.nber.org/papers/w14124and
the full paper at
> >http://www.nber.org/~dynarski/Deming_Dynarski_Childhood.pdf.
Overall
> > the authors appear negative about it:
>
> <snipped>
>
> I'm not surprised. =A0Holding a child back in the hope that they will
cop=
e
> better with Kindergarten is only ever going to help a minority of
childre=
n --
> the ones where the problem IS immaturity, rather than an undiagnosed
lear=
ning
> disorder, the results of parental overindulgence or -- the most common
th=
ing
> -- completely normal behaviour that is viewed as pathological.

Kids vary in intelligence, and some will reach a "mental age" of 6
only at age 7, which corresponds to a ratio IQ of 86. If the first
grade curriculum in a certain school presumes a mental age of 6, some
6-year-olds should not be in first grade, because they are not smart
enough yet. Perhaps they should repeat kindergarten. I'm not saying
this is the only reason some 6-year-olds are not ready for 1st grade,
but it is the reason for some. Of course, it's not PC to acknowledge
differences in intelligence when setting educational policy.

> My experience has been of parents whose expectations for their
five-year-=
old
> boys (and it is boys in particular) are much too high. =A0Of course they
=
don't
> sit still at home for more than a few minutes (why should they?). =A0Of
c=
ourse
> they aren't reading and writing. =A0

My eldest son was reading before 4, and several others in this group
have mentioned that they or their children were reading at that age or
earlier. Should the curriculum be set according to the median
capacity? That of the the 25th percentile? If a child is not ready to
learn to read, or write, or do arithmetic, I think he is not ready to
attend school.

> So what? =A0Our public schools, at least, are
> prepared for normal kids. =A0In fact, they are prepared for children who
=
can't
> speak any English, or who have learning disabilities. =A0Middle-class
par=
ents
> seem to have some very strange ideas about what children do in
Kindergart=
en!