4 ms·

Won't the advantage be gone once everyone is doing this?

• gist 10y ago
  It will. Probably what will happen then is people trying to game the birth month to have the oldest child in a particular year. By 'game' I simply mean planning the birth in a way that attempts to get it at the right time, if possible.
• giarc 10y ago
  It's like what Malcolm Gladwell said about hockey. A lot of good players are born earlier in the year. When they start playing, they are the oldest and the biggest of the group, and therefore can excel. Same with school, the Jan-Apr babies are just that much more ahead and it continues throughout school. If everyone pushed back a year, those same early babies would still have the same advantage.
• tedunangst 10y ago
  The advantage may not be entirely relative. Some may be absolute. If everybody starts school at six instead of five, nobody will have an "advantage" but everybody will do better.
  • sitkack 10y ago
    So you are saying we could be starting school too soon. Or maybe school crushes the soul before it has had a chance to form.
• startupdiscuss 10y ago
  Yeah, the end game is to have our kids start kindergarten at age 23. Imagine the head start! They'll just dominate the other toddlers! (See Kramer in Dojo as the obligatory Seinfeld reference)
• icc97 10y ago
  Yes, but your kids get the advantage until everyone else does the same