Outside of their siblings, American six-year-olds are socialized almost entirely with other six-year-olds. Historically, it has been possible for six-year-olds to be friends with 15-year olds—to, I suspect, the benefit of both. The older children provide near(er)-term models for the younger children of their future growth, and the older children are thus encouraged to be role-models.
In some societies, it’s not uncommon for older children to bully younger children, and I suspect the present-day US is one of the societies where this would happen a lot, if children of different ages were socialized together more. I seem to recall people discussing disadvantages of socializing six-year-olds together with six-year-eleven-month-olds, even.
Sometimes children are bullied by children of the same age, so separating children by exact age does not help with this. It may reduce the frequency, but I can imagine other ways of solving this problem; for example having adult people near, or using cameras in schools, in case of problem looking at the evidence and actually punishing the bullies.
I only have anecdotal evidence, but it seems to me that the biggest problem with bullying is that the bullies are never seriously punished, simply because the bullies are children too, and there is always someone there to protect the child from any harm, even if that child is actively trying to ham another child. And every time the bully gets the “second chance”, the victim gets a lesson in helplessness.
Sometimes children are bullied by children of the same age, so separating children by exact age does not help with this
I wonder which way the causation goes here. It might be that bullying occurs because they do not interact with each other that much, or because being seen with a different-aged person is considered uncool.
Good point, I’m probably being a bit idealistic there. It still seems likely that there’s a way to do a mixed-age community correctly, but it probably needs additional work.
Montessori classrooms do this—kids are usually in groupings of three-year spans. I haven’t read about bullying there specifically, but I never heard of it being a problem in the 6-9 year old class where my mother taught.
Anecdotal experience: My elementary school was divided in to 2-3 year spans (it varied from year to year, as it was a rather experimental school), with about an hour per day on average where we’d have the whole 6 year span together.
I have VERY clear memories that I got bullied from 1st-3rd year by older students (4th-6th year), but from 4th year on the problem went away. I don’t recall anyone else having issues with bullies in 4th grade or later, so I’d assume the younger spans tended to be targeted by anyone with such proclivities.
When I was in middle (7th − 8th year) and high school (9th − 12th year), bullying seemed largely age-irrelevant, although the oldest students in high school (12th year) seemed to enjoy occasionally “hazing” the newest students near the start of the year and would then get bored and focus on kids closer to their age.
I seem to recall people discussing disadvantages of socializing six-year-olds together with six-year-eleven-month-olds, even.
I’ve heard of this being an issue in sports teams — that particularly competitive sports are dominated by kids at the upper end of the age range for their grades — but not as regards bullying. Any source?
In some societies, it’s not uncommon for older children to bully younger children, and I suspect the present-day US is one of the societies where this would happen a lot, if children of different ages were socialized together more. I seem to recall people discussing disadvantages of socializing six-year-olds together with six-year-eleven-month-olds, even.
Sometimes children are bullied by children of the same age, so separating children by exact age does not help with this. It may reduce the frequency, but I can imagine other ways of solving this problem; for example having adult people near, or using cameras in schools, in case of problem looking at the evidence and actually punishing the bullies.
I only have anecdotal evidence, but it seems to me that the biggest problem with bullying is that the bullies are never seriously punished, simply because the bullies are children too, and there is always someone there to protect the child from any harm, even if that child is actively trying to ham another child. And every time the bully gets the “second chance”, the victim gets a lesson in helplessness.
I wonder which way the causation goes here. It might be that bullying occurs because they do not interact with each other that much, or because being seen with a different-aged person is considered uncool.
Good point, I’m probably being a bit idealistic there. It still seems likely that there’s a way to do a mixed-age community correctly, but it probably needs additional work.
Montessori classrooms do this—kids are usually in groupings of three-year spans. I haven’t read about bullying there specifically, but I never heard of it being a problem in the 6-9 year old class where my mother taught.
Anecdotal experience: My elementary school was divided in to 2-3 year spans (it varied from year to year, as it was a rather experimental school), with about an hour per day on average where we’d have the whole 6 year span together.
I have VERY clear memories that I got bullied from 1st-3rd year by older students (4th-6th year), but from 4th year on the problem went away. I don’t recall anyone else having issues with bullies in 4th grade or later, so I’d assume the younger spans tended to be targeted by anyone with such proclivities.
When I was in middle (7th − 8th year) and high school (9th − 12th year), bullying seemed largely age-irrelevant, although the oldest students in high school (12th year) seemed to enjoy occasionally “hazing” the newest students near the start of the year and would then get bored and focus on kids closer to their age.
I’ve heard of this being an issue in sports teams — that particularly competitive sports are dominated by kids at the upper end of the age range for their grades — but not as regards bullying. Any source?