Banking

Delaying School

In the readings written by Tertius Chandler, he argues against much of our education systems and questions the effectiveness of Universities. One of his arguments was that the age in which kids start school now is too early and he suggests that school be pushed back to the age of ten. I strongly disagree with this because starting school at that late of an age is just far too late. The fundamentals of being social would be lost and children, if not at school, would be distracted. Delaying school for children that late would also result in the simple fundamentals of schooling being lost.

Starting school at the age of ten would hide the fundamentals of socializing with others from kids. Pushing back school to that age simply has too many problems. Chandler agrees with Raymond Moore when he suggests that, "delaying school to the age of eight or ten and... opposes giving any exams before the age of ten" (Chandler, 14). Imagine a kid that does not go to school or talk to anyone and just sits at home. Once they get out into the world, like starting school for example, they simply would not have the ability to talk to someone because they did not learn it in the years they would have been in school. To delay school to the age of ten means that they would loose five years of schooling that have to be taught to them when they are ten. At the age of ten a child would normally be in the fourth grade. If there were no school or exams until that age who will teach them their ABC's and their pronunciation skills needed to socialize with people? The National Association of School Psychologists states that, "...most children pick up positive skills through their everyday interactions with adults and peers..." (NASP, Social Skills). If kids are stuck at home and can't socialize with their parents or peers then what social skills will they have to interact with anyone? Chandler suggests that school be postponed until the age of ten, which also means that kids will be completely clueless and won't even be able to spell the word "cat" when they finally start school. How will a child cope with going to school at that age and not even being able to talk or speak to someone because they simply just don't know how? There are ways to improve our education, but Chandler's is just not one of them. Besides losing the fundamentals of socializing, kids would also be distracted.

Distractions are one of the biggest problems for the young today and I myself admit that I get distracted countless times at home from watching television to going on the computer. If a child was to stay home and not go to school for an extra five years, they would give into all the distractions of living at home. With the time they could be in school, kids would be at home while their parents are off to work. Chandler states, "To separate them from their parents and to inflict cold drill in seemingly pointless subjects on them can drive their feelings inward and make them feel unwanted and lonely..."(Chandler, 14). He argues that while kids are in school in that early age before ten, they will begin to feel unwanted and lonely. So they won't feel lonely and unwanted at home while their parents are at work? Children stuck at home will become accustomed to the many distractions in the house. Instead of learning on their own or doing something to educate themselves, they would play videogames, computer games, watch television, listen to the radio, and many other things to distract them from doing something productive. The time spent at home being distracted all day is better spent in the class room learning in an actual environment with people. Delaying school until the age of ten is less affective than starting it at an earlier age since it results in the loss of a child's simple fundamentals acquired in the early ages of schooling.

The postponement of school will have its effects on a child's simple fundamentals. They would simply miss the simple things learned in the years of schooling delayed. Simple grammar and numbers are learned in those early years of schooling and you can not expect children to start learning this when they start school at ten or by themselves at home because there are simply too many other things to do. If kids aren't put in the environment of learning, they will not become accustomed to it and therefore they won't be willing to do it. Chandler agrees with Jean Piaget when she stated, "...give those students those same subjects a few years later, and they can grasp them rather quickly, because they have reached