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From: preece@uicsl.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.women
Subject: Re: Re: Daycare centers. - (nf)
Message-ID: <3167@uiucdcs.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 7-Oct-83 23:57:18 EDT
Article-I.D.: uiucdcs.3167
Posted: Fri Oct  7 23:57:18 1983
Date-Received: Sun, 9-Oct-83 05:07:19 EDT
Lines: 27

#R:pyuxnn:-13800:uicsl:16400028:000:1377
uicsl!preece    Oct  7 10:39:00 1983

	Children mature at different rates and individuals differ.
	I have heard arguments (references on request; they're at home)
	That 5 & 6 is TOO EARLY to subject children to the pressures of
	book-larnin'...
----------
Kids do mature at different rates but it's hard to determine the rate of
maturation in an objective fashion.  By starting education at a fixed age
society says "most kids are ready to start school at this age." There are
clearly exceptions. I would say, from watching my five year old and the
kids she goes to school with, that most of them could have started
earlier. By requiring kids to start at a certain age we are protecting
them from their parents, in some cases. I'd like to see exceptions
written into the law, so that parents with strong feelings could petition
to have children admitted early or late and have a fair chance to convince
the arbitrating committee that the change is appropriate to the needs of
their particular child.  Some parents are over-aggressive and are pushing
for their kids to move as fast as possible, some parents are over-protective
and would hold their children back as much as possible. Having an
exceptions committee would give concerned parents a chance to protect
their children from arbitrary birthdate cutoffs while protecting society's
and the child's interests as well.

scott preece
pur-ee!uiucdcs!uicsl!preece