Reply to What is best-case for poor public kids that are several grade levels behind by 9th?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]
"Or" would be better than "yes".

We really need to taker a closer look at what Germany's doing with their education system.  We have pretty much outsourced much of our manufacturing and turned into a service society which consists of much lower paying jobs.  In contrast, Germany retained a robust manufacturing and is very developed.[/quote]
We would also have to look at the labor system in Germany (including the fact that unions are significant shareholders in public companies).  That's a non-starter in a country that thinks unions are the cause of job losses.[/quote]

You want to use Germany as the example?  Fine.  Do you know that in Germany kids take an exam at ten years old (not tenth grade) that determines their future?  Is that really what you want?  DS is a successful college grad.  Plenty smart.  Would have bombed out on such a test because the only thing he cared about at that age was sports and video games.   I know plenty of kids who qualified for GT who have awful jobs.  Yet, they would have been on the fast track.

I Germany, you have three tracks: top (university), middle (commercial), labor (can be skilled).  This is decided at ten.[/quote]

That is absolutely frightening that kids are being shape sorted so young.  What happens when they decide at 12 or 13 to buckle down and study?  Too late for them?[/quote]

So make it slightly more flexible than Germany's system, then, and allow for education opportunities such as community college or classes hosted through local libraries to admit adults who can prove they've gotten serious about an educational goal after the traditional age.

As long as the test isn't a surprise and kids and families know to expect the high stakes, it doesn't seem frightening or unfair to me. They can then set their priorities accordingly. A student who knows -- or whose parents impress upon him -- that school performance is relevant for him at age 10 (not years later in high school) because that determines whether he can have as much choice as possible of future cool jobs will suddenly "care" about more than just entertainment, or the parents can tie what he does care about to adequate studying as many parents do already in our current system.

If 10 is too young, make it age 11/12 at the approximate start of middle school. By that age kids can certainly be expected to buckle down and take their education seriously if the opportunities they are being given are granted to them through the hard work of others (in the form of taxpayer-funded public education).

Using the German system as a model doesn't have to mean adopting it exactly as is; in fact I agree that a few modifications would be best to tailor the excellent basic concept to U.S. society and values.[/quote]

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