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?

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 :-)