Seeing as I am approaching this topic with no prior knowledge of the two opposing sides and their arguments, I will approach this question impartially, at least at first.
My first thoughts on the subject are in favor of kindergarten. Why is kindergarten a bad thing? It seems to me like kindergarten is as crucial step in a childs academic and social foundation as high school and college are. The children in kindergarten are being exposed to other children that are the same age, something that they may or may not have ever been exposed to. Not only that, but they are being introduced into a structured system of living that they will exercise for the next couple decades of their life, including getting up for school and being there for a majority of their day. This also includes the hugely significant aspect of being immersed in a social environment for the first time with other unfamiliar children (this rules out the sibling factor). The children will develop social skills at this stage, and they are tools that the children will continue to hone and utilize for the rest of their lives.
Thinking about the negative aspects of kindergarten brings up a few key points. Maybe children are too young for this stage. If this is to be deemed a problem, then how does one prove that a child is too young? The easy answer is simply that you cannot prove it one way or the other because of the ambiguity of the question. There are certainly multitudes of children that have succeeded so far while having undergone kindergarten at the current age, and there are many that have not. To blame a child's success on whether or not they attended kindergarten and at what age would be foolish.
Bullying also presents itself as an argument for why children should not be exposed to this social scene so early. But is bullying really caused by children attending kindergarten? I think not. Bullying is MUCH more likely to be attributed to poor parenting; a bully does not become a bully suddenly. He or she is a product of insecurity, and insecurity is derived from past experiences, which may include the child's parenting. For parents afraid that they may be exposing their child to potential bullies by sending them to kindergarten: bullies are just as likely to be present in kindergarten as they are in high school, if not less likely. Parents who shelter their children like that are not allowing them to experience crucial aspects of our social infrastructure that are best learned as early as possible, so they may be put into practice as soon as possible.
An example of an aspect mentioned above is the skill of being charismatic. If a child does not enter kindergarten and instead waits until later to enter school, they will be entering at a stage where the majority of the other children have already made friends and experimented with interacting with peers they do not know. It is a valuable and lifelong skill that must be practiced all the time in order for the child to be successful. This is not to say that all children that enter kindergarten will grow to be charismatic - that depends on other aspects of a child's life as well - but that child will be starting at the same spot all of his or her peers are starting at, making it more likely that they will develop similarly.
On a personal level, I entered kindergarten at the normal age and progressed through school in a normal fashion. However, I did not develop into a charismatic person until my freshman year of high school. In elementary and middle school I only had a few friends. In my life I have been exposed to bullies of all ages. But I am grateful for all of my experiences, especially kindergarten because I feel I would be at a huge disadvantage right now without the lessons and experiences that I learned in that crucial year of my developing life.
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