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Academic claims bright kids should start school aged 6


Posted by SchoolDays Newshound on 21/05/2012. Academic claims bright kids should start school aged 6Tags: Primary School News

Children should not start school until the age of six, according to a leading academic, who claimed earlier tuition can have a negative effect on intelligent youngsters.

Senior lecturer at Roehampton University's Research Centre for Therapeutic Education Dr Richard House claimed entering pupils into education when they are just four years old can lead to premature "adultification".

The expert's research suggests gifted students suffer from being pushed "too far, too fast", rather than benefiting from early enrolment into schools.

Dr House said the findings imply "young children's run-away intellect actually needs to be slowed down in the early years if they are not to risk growing up in an intellectually unbalanced way".

It was claimed youngsters should be allowed to develop naturally and need plenty of play time so they can develop social skills during their formative years.

Children that display characteristics such as a well-developed vocabulary, intellectual curiosity, keen powers of observation and a very good memory may be gifted, according to the Centre for Talented Youth Ireland.

Written by Donal WalshADNFCR-2163-ID-801367318-ADNFCR


Comments

Peter Lydon

(23-05-2012 18:48)


Mayomom is right. Why send our kids to school when they are ready for it. It's much better to subject them to a process of stupidifcation so that they remain placid and complainant enough to be fit for the force feeding of the mediocre garbage that goes for education these days. God forbid a child should ever develop intellectually enough to asia teacher an interesting or challenging question. Anyway, that's not what education is for. Society needs obedient worker bees. The last thing we want is children who know stuff, who can think independently or critically. Sure, t'isn it a great country altogether.

Mayomom

(22-05-2012 09:34)


I agree it is premature "adultification" or even the industrialisation of our kids lives to suit society's need for parents in the labour-force during the so-called "boom" (it never reached our area however). Still we all fell for it. My children were all bright and entered school at the so-called" right" age for Ireland but I wish I'd waited. By age six-seven they were already switching off and sooooo bored. It got so bad that recently I've pulled them out of the system completely (going homeschool route ) and am trying to heal the damage done by stagnation and neglect . They love being able to work and play when they want and are thriving.

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