Have you fallen into the trap of early admission?

Recently, the \”Notice on Compulsory Education Enrollment in 2017\” issued by the General Office of the Ministry of Education mentioned that the cut-off date of birth for children in the first grade of primary school shall be determined by the provincial education administration department based on the actual situation. In other words, the birth deadline for children entering primary school can be postponed to December 31. This means that it is very likely that in the near future, children as young as 5 years and 8 months old will be able to enter school! Moms finally don’t have to rush to have a caesarean section on August 31! As parents of children of school-school age, are we happy to go to school early? Or insist on attending school at full age but feel anxious? Does entering school early give children a head start, or are there other possibilities? Self-esteem – a key factor in determining children\’s academic level. Looking around at the winners in life, they all seem to show one common characteristic – high self-esteem. Self-Esteem, also known as \”self-esteem\”, is the judgment we make about our self-worth and the emotions triggered by these judgments. This evaluation affects our emotions, future behavior, and long-term psychological resilience. Each of us has the need to understand ourselves and our position in society, so as to understand our own value. Adults will understand themselves through certain objective reference standards, such as: understanding their health status through observable indicators such as blood pressure, pulse, and body temperature. However, most of the time, we do not have such objective standards for reference, and we can only evaluate ourselves by comparing ourselves with others. A very typical example is that most college freshmen will have this experience: in high school, each of them was very smart; but after going to college, they found that they were not so outstanding, they were just smart. Just ordinary people. Children are also accustomed to measuring their own position and abilities in comparison with their peers, and forming a judgment of their own value – self-esteem. From the age of 5, children begin to realize the importance of self-esteem. Researchers have found that children’s degree of self-esteem is greatly affected by their parents’ parenting style and their own sense of security in early childhood (before the age of 6) (Carolson, 2010). Warm and positive parenting lets children know that they are accepted for their abilities and worth, while parents\’ strict but appropriate expectations help children learn to view their own behavior according to reasonable standards. In layman\’s terms, children think that they are cute and worthy of being loved because of the unconditional love and appropriate discipline from their parents, thus building self-confidence. When children enter late childhood (after the age of 7), another factor – \”group identity and peer role\” begins to become increasingly prominent. The source of great self-confidence for school-age children comes from being recognized by most classmates and peers in a group environment. Children who have a certain degree of “authority” and “status” in their peer group show significantly higher levels of self-esteem (Laura, 2005). Children need to be recognized by most of their peers in order to build self-confidence. At the same time, children\’s self-esteem level and learning level are highly correlated. A study shows that self-esteem affects children\’s future academic performanceSelf-esteem is so important, so what factors affect the level of children\’s self-esteem? Psychology professor Dr. Liu Shaoying (2014) conducted an interesting study using laboratory research methods to examine the differences in self-esteem among children in the middle class of kindergarten (4-5 years old). The results found that: older children The level of self-esteem is significantly higher than that of younger children in the same class. That is to say, in the same class, older children have higher self-esteem and feel better at school; on the contrary, younger children in the same class have significantly lower self-esteem than older children and are less confident about their ability to complete their studies. The level of self-confidence is obviously low. At the same time, the study also found that girls\’ self-esteem levels are significantly higher than boys of the same age. In other words, most girls adapt to school much better than boys and feel more capable than boys. Are you still anxious to send your children to school? Mothers who have raised children know that the younger the child is, the more obvious the difference in ability due to age will be. On the surface, it seems that we allow children to enter school early to take the initiative in the competition, but we forget to verify that children who enter early are really more capable in school than older children? Because of the age difference, resulting in a lack of ability, many children have low self-esteem. Once low self-esteem occurs, in the long-term learning process of children, it is likely to form a stable mentality of children\’s self-perception, \”I am just worse than everyone else\”, \”I am just not as capable as other children\”. Once self-perception is formed, it is difficult to change. Professor Liu’s second discovery is also very interesting. Under the current domestic education system, most girls show stronger adaptability than boys. Therefore, in the initial competition between the sexes, women showed more self-esteem and self-confidence, and at the same time received more recognition from teachers. Many psychologists engaged in clinical intervention for children\’s behavioral problems have had similar feelings. In today\’s education system, especially during the critical period when children enter primary school from kindergarten, most boys will be more obviously unable to adapt to primary school than girls. A learning situation arises. On the contrary, many girls seem to show more self-efficacy in the transition stage of first grade. When is the best time for children to enter school? When is the right time for children to enter school? According to the Ministry of Education’s conventional classification, it depends on age. HeyMom’s advice is: watch the kids! The first is to see whether it is conducive to the improvement of children\’s long-term learning behavior, and the second is to consider the gender factors of children. Many schools in Europe and the United States will even help children conduct a basic assessment of their admission ability before entering school. Such assessments have a long history in the West. Across Southeast Asia, including Japan, Hong Kong, and Taiwan, schools even provide similar assessment projects free of charge to help parents better measure whether children have the basic abilities required for subsequent primary school studies and provide targeted training. But it should be noted that this kind of assessment is more about helping children better achieve the abilities of school age, rather than simply giving a label to the child. Education is a long-distance race. If life is so long, what we give to our children willShould it be a short jump start or a long-term endurance? It’s a long long journey~