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Delay Education In The United States

Decent Essays

The age in which a child starts schools has continuously been debated in the United Kingdom. Children start school at the age of four or five years however many parents and childhood education experts argue that starting education later will result in ‘higher levels of academic achievement’ (Whitebread, 2013, No page given). This essay will compare the education system of the United Kingdom and the United States and will evaluate why both countries believe a delayed start to education is beneficial.

The United Kingdom’s and the United States education systems differ in three ways. In the USA, schooling starts at the age of six or seven whereas in the UK children start at the age of four. There are thirteen years of schooling in the UK, which …show more content…

Development psychologists further argue that through role-play, children are able to understand the meaning of many words and it is a better approach to teach language rather than ‘formal instructions’. This suggests that children in the United States benefited from a delayed start in formal education and were able to learn literacy and speaking skills from playful activities, which encourage independent learning instead of being taught in a classroom.

In conclusion, there has been a discussion in the United Kingdom about delaying the start of formal education and it has been argued that a delayed start would benefit children. The United Kingdom’s research has been compared to the United States findings, which supported a delayed start to formal education. The results suggest that a delayed start to formal education in the UK would be beneficial as children in the US have developed confidence, speaking and literacy skills due to play-based activities as a result of a delayed

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