title: How to set default date in date_select helper in Rails
body: <p>I'm trying to set up a date of birth helper in my Rails app (2.3.5). At present it is like so.</p>
  
  <pre><code>&lt;%= f.date_select :date_of_birth, :start_year =&gt; Time.now.year - 110, :end_year =&gt; Time.now.year %&gt;
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>This generates a perfectly functional set of date fields that work just fine but....</p>
  
  <p>They default to today's date which is not ideal for a date of birth field (I'm not sure what is but unless you're running a neonatal unit today's date seems less than ideal). I want it to read Jan 1 2010 instead (or 2011 or whatever year it happens to be). Using the :default option has proven unsuccessful. I've tried many possibilities including;</p>
  
  <pre><code>&lt;%= f.date_select :date_of_birth, :default =&gt; {:year =&gt; Time.now.year, :month =&gt; 'Jan', :day =&gt; 1}, :start_year =&gt; Time.now.year - 110, :end_year =&gt; Time.now.year %&gt;
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>and</p>
  
  <pre><code>&lt;%= f.date_select :date_of_birth, :default =&gt; Time.local(2010,'Jan',1), :start_year =&gt; Time.now.year - 110, :end_year =&gt; Time.now.year %&gt;
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>None of this changes the behaviour of the first example. Does the default option actually work as described? It seems that this should be a fairly straightforward thing to do.</p>
  
  <p>Ta.</p>