It’s Party Time, Kids

It’s Party Time, Kids

        “If he can put his right hand over his head and reach his left ear, then he’s ready to go to school.” This was my grandmother’s reply to my mother when my older brother was only a few months old and my mom asked at what age should my brother enter school. And my grandmother couldn’t be any more wrong.

        In the Philippine situation, under Republic Act No. 10157 or  the universal public kindergarten program, before a child enters 1st grade he must have already accomplished at least 1 year of kindergarten. Kindergarten or sometimes also known as pre-school is the first year of  “formal” schooling. Sometimes, kindergarten is 2 years, in rare cases 3 years. The DepEd Order requires children to be 6 years old by the time they enter 1st grade. Considering the compulsory 1 year of kindergarten, that means most kids enter at around ages 4 or 5. But I believe this should be changed. I believe that the starting age for pre-school should be changed from 5 years old to 6 years old because it is more beneficial for the child.

        We often hear stories of parents of children, especially in places like China and Singapore that introduce formal schooling as early as 2 years old. The type of  parents that don’t let their children play at the park for too long because they believe it’s a waste of time. Children that are limited to only reading educational books and not that many story books. Children that have to wake up early in the morning for their 3-hour violin lesson and their French lessons that follow right after. These are children of parents that believe that education this early “stimulates the brain” but these parents do not see the fact that they are robbing their children of their very own childhood.

        In countries with the best education systems, children do not start formal schooling until as late as 6. Finland, with the best education system in the world wait until the children are 7 until schools can accept them. The Finnish education system understands how important these years prior to formal schooling are.

        Studies have shown that parents that delay a child’s education by at least one year, have numerous benefits for the child, mentally, socially, and emotionally. These children have better focus, reduced levels of hyperactivity and have well-developed social-regulation. Traits or characteristics that are not always easily attained by children. Imagine schools with more children like this that fill, or overflow rather, the classrooms of our public schools.

        Imagine this, a Philippines that produced more brilliant, self-aware, and self-reliant children that lived every year of their childhood to the fullest. This would be possible if parents and our Department of Education would realize how beneficial a one-year delay would be and how wrong it is to send children to school as early as 2 years old.

        In 2015, Stanford professor Thomas S. Dee and Danish social researcher, Hans Henrik Sievertsen, conducted a study on Danish students, called “The Gift of Time? School Starting Age and Mental Health”. It’s results showed how beneficial it is for parents to delay their children’s education by at least one year.

        Firstly, the years prior to formal schooling is the child’s exposure to a play-based environment and no exposure to an instruction-based environment helps better concentration. Remember the years when you would use a banana as a phone or you would stay in the sandbox for hours at a time digging up “dinosaur” bones. My mom would gather all of the chairs in our dining table and drape a bedsheet over them to make a traditional fort I would spend all my time here in my pretend “castle”, protecting my people, and hosting tea parties. Extending the number of years that a child gets to play means more years of freedom to imagine and explore. This play time boosts brain function, allowing them to be more concentrated when the time comes for them to be in an instruction-based environment.

        School-related tasks and focusing in class are easier for a child that starts school late not only because he or she is relatively more mature but because he or she realizes that they are no longer in their play-based environment. It’s easier for them to put away their “banana phones” and sandbox exploration is reserved for outside of the classroom. They have been made cognizant of the difference between what should be done inside of the classroom and what should only be done outside.

        Secondly, an important discovery for mental health in children, shows that the one year delay in education reduces the possibility of a diagnosis in ADHD or Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder in children. This is the most common mental health disorder and children with ADHD may be hyperactive and unable control their impulses. Or they may have trouble paying attention. Inattention and hyperactivity are both traits of ADHD and these traits are lessened with the help of the one-year delay. The delay shows heightened results in levels of concentration. Looking at the bigger picture, not only is ADHD diagnosis reduced but generally, children have more control over their attention spans. In the Philippines, where the teacher-student ratio is usually 1:36, it can be difficult to get the attention of all 36 students, to get all of them to listen to the teacher and avoid getting distracted. But if DepEd would change the age maybe it wouldn’t be so difficult anymore.