Developmental Progress and Public School

Erin Anderssen wrote in The Globe and Mail yesterday:

An estimated one in four children show up on that first day of school, short on the basic tools they need to succeed, from simple language to fine motor skills to co-operating with classmates.

The article then goes on to allude that this is often the fault of the upbringing and environment of the children. Naturally, it is so easy to put blame on the parents for not providing a challenging and sensory experience for their children?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢s preschool years. It is easy to blame the parents for neglecting or abusing their children. It is easy to blame the parents for being lazy and uncaring.

What is never just as easy is to question the public education systems?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢ (and some private systems) premise that somehow grouping children by age is the best course to determine developmental progress. This, of course, is ludicrous given that children develop at different rates. Grouping them by age naturally creates developmental problems that wouldn?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢t exist if children were grouped by developmental rates.

What is also equally ludicrous is that after graduation from high school, individuals are virtually never grouped by age again in the real world. School is a make-believe reality that has no resemblance of actual reality.

It is no wonder that so many parents opt to homeschool their children.