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I don't think kids should learn to use cutlery at such early age, not without proper ethics training. Cutlery gives you a lot of power. The power to do both good and evil. Children just don't have that kind of judgement.

If you teach a kid to eat with a knife and fork and they end up stabbing someone, who is going to take responsibility? Does the kid get tried as an adult or juvenile?

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Oh, but we have proper ethics training for using cutlery. It's called table manner.

> Table manners are the rules of etiquette used while eating, which may also include the appropriate use of utensils.

> - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Table_manners

Now the stabbing part, there are many court cases of these. I can't cite specifics, but I'm sure you can find them.

"We teach them basic manners; some of them ignore it and get into trouble, but overall it's still a net benefit to society to teach the tool to all children" is exactly the point I am making :-)

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