In Spain the law says that the education of a child is mandatory from the age of six, but there are very few children who start school at that age because the majority enter two or three years. They do so for a matter of custom and social pressure (it is considered a mistake not to go to school in children), because even if you want to wait, there are few families that can take care of the child at home or use other solutions, and because so they can opt for a place for the rest of schooling (at six years it is much harder to choose the school that parents would like).
The fact is that a recent study by the University of Standford based on children in Denmark concludes that many children are being schooled too soon. The most surprising thing, and now we explain it, is that it does not talk about children starting school after two or three years like ours, but about children who go to school at age six, compared to those who start school at seven years old.
Why too soon?
Because apparently, if children are schooling near six years of age, the probability that they adapt poorly and develop attention deficit hyperactivity disorder is greater than if they are schooled closer to seven years. Or what is the same: children who go to school later have more self-control than those who are enrolled earlier.
According to the researchers, when analyzing the behavior of children at age 11, they saw that those who had entered the school a year later reduced the probability of having lack of attention and hyperactivity by 73%.
The anecdotal situation is that many of the children who start school earlier, at that age of six, do so because parents consider it beneficial. They believe that the sooner they go, the greater their knowledge and preparation will be, and this will be positive in the future. However, in countries like Germany and Finland they go to school later, towards the age of seven, because they think that at that age children are more capable, being more capable they have more self-confidence, and having more security increases their abilities, in a circle that constantly feeds on.
But ... going later, they go to the nursery
The study has a limitation that must be explained: children who go to school later in Denmark tend to go to what is known as pre-kindergarten, something like a nursery school or nursery school of ours, but for children up to six years .
Thus, the difference is that there are 6-year-olds in the school (those who are most likely to have attention problems at the age of eleven) and 6-year-olds who still do not go, but do go to kindergarten (which have at eleven 73% less likely to have those mentioned attention problems).
Apparently, children's schools in Denmark are considered centers with a remarkable to excellent preparation, where children have more time to develop through unstructured play than those who go to school. In fact, researchers see this event as a benefit, for children to go to school later, to be able to spend more time in centers where free play prevails and where children can, above all, enjoy the early years of their childhood .
And in Spain?
In Spain we go backwards, apparently. Children start school at age three (some have two when they enter), and parents who have not taken them to any nursery before continue to receive pressure and criticism from many social circles because it is considered to be a mistake.
In fact, if you look, I have already written three times (and with this go four) the word "kindergarten", when for years it is trying to eliminate the term so that we all call it children's school.
I have no problem calling it one way or another, because the admiration I feel for many educators and for some of the centers I know is infinite and does not depend on the term, but it gives me the feeling that we want to be called a school childish because it seems very good to society that from a very young age they go to "school", receive an education and start learning as soon as possible.
But this is nothing more than a way of masking a reality that is inescapable: family and work conciliation does not exist, is a farce that is still to be resolved, and fathers and mothers are forced to juggle or dispense with part of a salary, or a whole salary, to be able to raise our children, because The State doesn't care whether we have children or not, does not value it in any case to the extent that it should.
In other words: we call it nursery school in an attempt to feel better about taking them there (because they will learn many things and receive an early education), for an event that should not happen: parents are absolutely alone to be, since all we have is 16 weeks of parental leave and two weeks of parental leave. Once that time passes, we meet a totally dependent baby, in the same situation as if we had not been parents: with the same mortgage to pay, the same work schedule and the same salary (well, mothers are given 100 euros per month, but only if they have a job).
So since this is what has been going on for many years, and for us to continue seeing it normal, capitalism decided to make us believe that going to kindergarten was positive (and that is why we insist that we call it that, and from time to time studies come out that say that the children who go have better grades as adults, as if the important thing were only the curriculum and not that parents can educate children who have decided to have).
That is why I still like nursery, because although they do not keep children as who keeps a pot, they are safe, they watch and accompany them, hopefully, while playing freely and freely. A nursery school sounds like schedules, directed activities, strict rules and little free play (that's how the term sounds to me, I don't say so); A nursery sounds like freedom to me, toys, open doors and children without a clock to follow ... what curiously they value most in the study just mentioned.
And beware, I am talking about nurseries and nursery schools when I should talk about those two to three years in which many enter too soon, crying every morning and feeling misunderstood and finally resigned and somewhat abandoned.
I repeat: a study is evaluating whether it is better to enter school at six or seven years old, and here the debate is still in if it is better for them to enter three years from home, or to go to a nursery school before.
