The legal age for starting Kindergarten in Kansas is 5. The deadline is Aug 31 by midnight. There are no exceptions to this rule. I know this because I was a victim of it.

My birthday is Sept 1, so I missed the deadline by a few hours.

The year I turned 5 , literally all my friends went to school except me. This is always considered a bad thing. Some parents choose to hold their children from starting school.

There are numerous reason for this.

Boys in particular are held back a lot, sometimes from immaturity.

However, some parents will actually hold boys a year, for sports, in order to increase their size or ability. That is an individual choice for each family.

In my case, I was ready to go to school, and no matter what my parents wanted, I could not go. Has this always been a bad thing? No. It helped with my performance academically for sure and made a lot of things easier.

Being one of the oldest, does have it’s advantages. Everyone always says, “You’ll be 18 your entire Senior year!” I say big deal.

You’re considered an adult at 18, but you can’t really do anything except vote. So, how important is starting school early? I don’t know. You tell me!