Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, March 15, 1992 TAG: 9203130451
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JOE KENNEDY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
But he had a July birthday, which would have put him among the youngest children in his kindergarten class. And he seemed to lack confidence.
Donna Early and her husband, Denny, thought about delaying their son's entry in favor of another year at the preschool of Second Presbyterian Church in Roanoke, where Donna Early teaches.
They did some research and decided the possible gains were worth the delay.
Tyler Early spent that extra year and emerged much more confident, his mother says. This year, in kindergarten, he has thrived.
In the wake of the highly structured kindergarten curriculum that became popular during the "back-to-basics" movement in the public schools of the 1980s, parents like the Earlys are giving their children an extra year of development before sending them off to school.
It's not that their children are academically unready for "real school." Rather, they are children whose parents feel they would benefit from another year of emotional and physical growth.
Often, the avenue is an extra year of preschool - giving them up to three years of pre-kindergarten experience.
Roanoke-area educators say they abide by the wishes of parents who believe their children need more time, even if readiness tests show that they could handle kindergarten.
There is more to readiness than academics, they say. The ability to concentrate for up to 15 minutes on a single task and a sense of ease among classmates are but two of the other factors.
But, they say, the rigid, workbook-oriented curriculum of the '80s is passing from the scene, supplanted by developmentally appropriate programs tailored to teach each child at his or her level of development. Thus it might not be as necessary to delay entry as it was a few years ago.
It's a difficult decision. On one hand, there is the educators' desire to reach children as soon as they're ready for school; on the other, the parents' fear of sending them too soon.
Critics say delaying entry to kindergarten - especially for affluent children who already have advantages over the general school population - only widens the gap between pupils and makes teaching kindergarten more difficult.
The National Association for the Education of Young Children in Washington says older children drive up the demand for increasingly academic kindergartens, to the detriment of those who enter on time.
Unsurprisingly, some of the staunchest supporters of delayed entry are parents who have held their children out. Often, they have done so in reaction to difficulties another child - their own or a friend's - experienced after enrolling on time.
Jonathan and Jeri Rogers delayed the kindergarten entry of their son, Jared, for an extra year of preschool. Jared, born in September, seemed to lack confidence around other children.
"It was the right decision then, and it's the right decision now," says Jonathan Rogers, a Roanoke lawyer. It was made easier by the difficulty they had in deciding whether Jared's older brother, Jackson, should enter on time.
Jackson did enroll on time and has become a model student - but it took a couple of years, Rogers says.
Traditionally, children with summer birthdays are considered candidates for delayed entry. This is especially true of boys, who are widely thought to develop more slowly than girls.
But even this generally accepted belief has critics, demonstrating how complicated the issue of readiness can be.
"Children develop when children develop," says Lewis Romano, director of student services for the Salem City Schools. "Our job is to take that kid where he is and do the best we can."
Whether delayed entry is a help to children who are socially immature is a subject of numerous studies and intense debate.
"There are as many studies showing that holding back doesn't help as that holding back helps, and they're all poorly done," says Jack Finney, director of the Child Study Center at Virginia Tech.
The Virginia Department of Education says children should not be denied entry to kindergarten because they lack maturity.
"Research on entry age to kindergarten does not support, in general, the assumption that older children will be ready," the department said in a report issued in 1989.
On the whole, Roanoke-area educators agree with Salem's Romano - that the schools can teach 5-year-olds whatever their developmental level.
"Being a school person, I would never say school is not the best place for the child," says Mary Hackley, director of elementary education for the Roanoke City Schools.
But if parents prefer to delay a child even after he or she appears suited to begin kindergarten, she and her colleagues won't force the issue - especially if the alternative is a stimulating preschool program where the child can improve his or her social skills.
"As a general trend, it's probably the upper socioeconomic class that keeps kids out an extra year," says Lorraine Lang, supervisor of language arts for the Roanoke County Schools.
"They feel it's real competitive in kindergarten and want their children ready. They've got the money to put their children into preschool.
"Those who can't afford to go to a preschool and learn to be with other children - it doesn't help to keep that child in the house watching television."
Jeannine Hamilton, director of Second Presbyterian's preschool, says parents started keeping their children back at her school about eight years ago, when they realized how academic kindergarten had become.
"Since then it has happened every year, and now you almost have to or your child will be left behind," she says.
This year, 23 of the 62 pupils who could have gone on were held back by their parents, meaning most of those will be 6 by the time they enter kindergarten.
Seventeen of those are boys, Hamilton says.
Next year, at least nine of 56 will be older children. Others will gain a year by starting the 3-year-old program at age 4.
Very few parents at the inner-city Lincoln Terrace elementary school inquire about their children's readiness for kindergarten, says William Sinkler, the principal.
For many, economics is to blame.
"If they can't afford preschool, they're less likely to know what is expected in kindergarten," Sinkler says.
Hamilton and her staff look at four things when evaluating children before entering kindergarten: academic readiness, social readiness, physical readiness and small and large motor skills.
"Some teachers will say they don't think keeping back a shy child will do them any good," Hamilton says. "I disagree. We have had children who were very shy be leaders by keeping them back a year."
The idea "has a lot of merit and ought to be considered if there's any hesitation at all," says Margaret Buford, director of the preschool at First Presbyterian Church in Roanoke. In her school, four or five of the 32 pupils in the classes for 4-year-olds have stayed back.
Boredom is not a problem for repeaters, she says, because teachers vary their activities.
Other experts say that children should be sent on, because developmental differences tend to disappear by the third grade. z
Giving children time
The argument has been raging for decades. On one side is the Gesell Institute, a child-study center in New Haven, Conn., whose executive director, Jackie Haines, says, "Probably the most important thing a parent could do for his or her child's entire schooling is not to start school too soon."
On the other is the National Association for the Education of Young Children, whose public affairs director, Barbara Miller, says:
"The real issue is making sure the kindergarten program - curriculum and teaching practices - is able to respond to the wide range of variation in the skills and abilities that is absolutely normal within a group of 5- and 6-year-olds."
The debate peaked three or four years ago, when developmentally appropriate kindergartens and primary grades were not in fashion, Miller says.
"Our position, sometimes characterized as throwing children to the wolves, was if you don't try to correct the program, what's going to correct the program?"
Now, she says, many programs are being corrected. But some parents continue to see delayed entry as a defensive measure.
"I don't want to set my own children up in a position as the youngest and having to keep up with other children who are a good year older," says Alice Moore, director of the Noah's Landing preschool at Christ Lutheran Church in Roanoke.
She held her 8-year-old son, Preston, out a year because of his November birthday. "It made a world of difference," she says. "He went from follower to leader."
"Children need to be given time to develop socially, become confident and have good self-esteem," says Sandra Carroll, executive director of the Greenvale Nursery School in Roanoke.
The last thing educators want is an increase in 6-year-olds to widen the kindergarten gap. They recommend that concerned parents seek kindergarten readiness testing for their children and discuss the school's program with principal, teachers and counselors, if necessary.
Success in school is everyone's goal. "I have seen children with very average intellects do extremely well in the elementary years because they could cope with the things handed to them," says Teresa Walthall, who teaches kindergarten at Mount Pleasant Elementary in Roanoke County. "I've seen some extremely bright children run into a lot of trouble. . . . They couldn't handle the situation they were placed in."
Hackley, director of elementary education in Roanoke, strongly encourages parents to send children who obviously are eager to start school. In other cases, "it's a close call," she says. "But you're making a decision about a child's life, and if we err, I would rather err on the side of the child. "If it means giving them more time, let's do that. Our job is to make sure it's for the benefit of the child."
by CNB