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This is not quite what I had in mind, though. I lived in Switzerland as well, and it seems more like a traditional education system where everyone in the academ

This is not quite what I had in mind, though. I lived in Switzerland as well, and it seems more like a traditional education system where everyone in the academic stream still needs to learn a broad range of subjects at the same pace as each other. Also having a single cutoff time at roughly age 12 seems quite harsh to me. I'm more thinking that you could learn English at an age-average pace while being ahead in math and physics, if that's what you wanted. Or vice versa. Qualifications would simply be a number of progressions that people could advance at their own leisure, perhaps with some sort of minimum so that you don't totally neglect certain core subjects.

dgellow 6y ago
Yep, I understand. I'm not aware of school systems going as far as what you describe. That's an interesting concept, though I'm not sure how practical that would be. A set of random thoughts: - I would expect that would require more teachers which is already a scarce resource in a lot of places - Also, you mention mostly individual learning and progression, but I would also expect part of school to be about group learning, with topics such as languages that becomes more of an issue if you have part of the students ahead in English, some ahead in French, while other at average level for everything - I guess that would make school classes a more fluid concept, where you are with your advanced math friends for 2 hours, then with kids from the average English course for 2 hours. So you don't have a common group of kids spending their school time together. I'm wondering what social environment that would be, e.g would that result in more or less bullying? More or less social cohesion? More or less difficult to build friendships? If you come from a disadvantageous background, won't you have more difficulties to mix with the ones who can access more advanced courses thanks to their parents? Of course they are open questions.
- analbumcover 6y ago
  > I guess that would make school classes a more fluid concept, where you are with your advanced math friends for 2 hours, then with kids from the average English course for 2 hours. So you don't have a common group of kids spending their school time together. This is typical of the current American education system, at least from middle school or junior high onward, where you tend to have roughly six different classes per day with different students in each class. Although math is the only class where they will typically move advanced students ahead. You definitely lose the social cohesion that is present in elementary/primary school where you spend the whole day with the same group of kids.
  - dgellow 6y ago
    That’s interesting, I wasn’t aware that was a thing. Thanks for sharing

dgellow 6y ago

Yep, I understand. I'm not aware of school systems going as far as what you describe. That's an interesting concept, though I'm not sure how practical that would be. A set of random thoughts: - I would expect that would require more teachers which is already a scarce resource in a lot of places - Also, you mention mostly individual learning and progression, but I would also expect part of school to be about group learning, with topics such as languages that becomes more of an issue if you have part of the students ahead in English, some ahead in French, while other at average level for everything - I guess that would make school classes a more fluid concept, where you are with your advanced math friends for 2 hours, then with kids from the average English course for 2 hours. So you don't have a common group of kids spending their school time together. I'm wondering what social environment that would be, e.g would that result in more or less bullying? More or less social cohesion? More or less difficult to build friendships? If you come from a disadvantageous background, won't you have more difficulties to mix with the ones who can access more advanced courses thanks to their parents? Of course they are open questions.

analbumcover 6y ago
> I guess that would make school classes a more fluid concept, where you are with your advanced math friends for 2 hours, then with kids from the average English course for 2 hours. So you don't have a common group of kids spending their school time together. This is typical of the current American education system, at least from middle school or junior high onward, where you tend to have roughly six different classes per day with different students in each class. Although math is the only class where they will typically move advanced students ahead. You definitely lose the social cohesion that is present in elementary/primary school where you spend the whole day with the same group of kids.
- dgellow 6y ago
  That’s interesting, I wasn’t aware that was a thing. Thanks for sharing