This sounds like someone from flyover who wants cheap labor for their meatpacking plant.

In order to have educated voters, everyone needs to study American government. Trades people create jobs because many run their own businesses. They need secondary math. Geometry proofs help people learn logic an reasoning skills. Literature helps people to empathize with others from different walks of life. Half of the recent innovations in tech started life on sci-fi shows.

European countries silo their kids early. It's not good preparation for the more flexible US job market. It also means that a lot of voters in Europe are low info; a lot of these countries have fascist parties and vote for insane GDP-wreckers like Brexit.

Anonymous wrote:“Other countries, that don’t automatically give everyone a secondary school education such as Germany and Netherlands seem to do well.”

What do you mean by not automatically give everyone secondary school education? Kids in at least one of the two countries you mention have to go to school until 16 by law.

Same here.

“Other countries, that don’t automatically give everyone a secondary school education such as Germany and Netherlands seem to do well.”

What do you mean by not automatically give everyone secondary school education? Kids in at least one of the two countries you mention have to go to school until 16 by law.

Anonymous wrote:There was a time when vocational training was part of a high school curriculum. There was shop class, automotive class, etc... It's too bad those were phased out because I think there are lots of kids who are attracted to that sort of hands on learning.
I agree that the Great Gatsby isn't for everyone.

Those classes still exist.

Anonymous wrote:There was a time when vocational training was part of a high school curriculum. There was shop class, automotive class, etc... It's too bad those were phased out because I think there are lots of kids who are attracted to that sort of hands on learning.
I agree that the Great Gatsby isn't for everyone.

Those classes still exist

I disagree with the premise of your post. It's not about which kids "deserve" an education. In theory, every kid is deserving of an education.

The issue might actually be whether a traditional HS education is a good fit for every kid. Maybe not, but there aren't any viable alternatives.

There was a time when vocational training was part of a high school curriculum. There was shop class, automotive class, etc... It's too bad those were phased out because I think there are lots of kids who are attracted to that sort of hands on learning.
I agree that the Great Gatsby isn't for everyone.

Anonymous wrote:So you want to write off kids who don’t have fully developed brains. There are lots of reasons kids struggle. Many of these kids can and do turn things around.

There is a “write off” period already. In college if you don’t do well your first two years you aren’t going to be able to declare a competitive major or have greatly diminished chances of going to grad school or obtaining a high prestige job etc.

The only difference here between the current system and mine is that I am moving up the write off period up by four years. I advocate for a 30% rejection rate of middle schoolers, that should be narrow enough to weed out mainly only the truly awful brains.

Yes, some poor performers in middle school will blossom later on, and some high performing middle schools will flounder. But, from my own personal experience the academic performance of most middle schoolers will be strongly correlated with future performance. We shouldn’t be spending more than $15,000 per pupil to find and polish the couples of diamonds under a desert.

So you want to write off kids who don’t have fully developed brains. There are lots of reasons kids struggle. Many of these kids can and do turn things around.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No. Everyone needs k-12. But it doesnt have to be college track for everyone. There is a lot of practical knowledge (like taxes and how govt works) that we need for people to know. All these people will be able to vote for people and policies, they need to know what they are choosing.

Unpopular opinion but as a HS teacher I actually agree. My students roam the hall aimlessly. They pass eventually because of terrible grading and attendance policies but aren't learning anything. They desperately need personal finance and life skills, soft job skills and a trade. They're stuck in a cycle of poverty with no way out, and algebra and the Great Gatsby isn't going to help if they're not motivated.

To clarify, I agree with the post I quoted, not OP.

You mean you agree with OP and not the post you quoted?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No. Everyone needs k-12. But it doesnt have to be college track for everyone. There is a lot of practical knowledge (like taxes and how govt works) that we need for people to know. All these people will be able to vote for people and policies, they need to know what they are choosing.

Unpopular opinion but as a HS teacher I actually agree. My students roam the hall aimlessly. They pass eventually because of terrible grading and attendance policies but aren't learning anything. They desperately need personal finance and life skills, soft job skills and a trade. They're stuck in a cycle of poverty with no way out, and algebra and the Great Gatsby isn't going to help if they're not motivated.

To clarify, I agree with the post I quoted, not OP.

Anonymous wrote:No. Everyone needs k-12. But it doesnt have to be college track for everyone. There is a lot of practical knowledge (like taxes and how govt works) that we need for people to know. All these people will be able to vote for people and policies, they need to know what they are choosing.

Unpopular opinion but as a HS teacher I actually agree. My students roam the hall aimlessly. They pass eventually because of terrible grading and attendance policies but aren't learning anything. They desperately need personal finance and life skills, soft job skills and a trade. They're stuck in a cycle of poverty with no way out, and algebra and the Great Gatsby isn't going to help if they're not motivated.

No. Everyone needs k-12. But it doesnt have to be college track for everyone. There is a lot of practical knowledge (like taxes and how govt works) that we need for people to know. All these people will be able to vote for people and policies, they need to know what they are choosing.

Among many many other problems with your idea - if HS wasn't compulsory a lot of families would pull their kids out to work, even kids who are good students and want to be in school.

I am believer that everyone should have access to a K-8 education and this benefits the kids who have an opportunity to explore academics of interest and strength, and allows society to give a rough measurement of the intellectual capability of each student. However, education is an investment, and a very costly one at that.

At some point we should ask is spending $15,000 per pupil on so many students who sleep through class, generally lazy, and have limited academic aptitude the right move? These kids could be better served by working a full time job or learning a trade building up their financial net worth rather than attend high school, but instead these masses proliferate the classrooms with distractions and negatively impact the reputation standings of many high schools. Say top 70% make the cut to be able to attend high school.


Since FCPS has all but made it exceedingly painful to fail any single student, under the disguise of equity of promoting equal outcomes, which lead to too many bad apples being a classroom that they shouldn’t, that further increase costs. Other countries, that don’t automatically give everyone a secondary school education such as Germany and Netherlands seem to do well. It would solve many complaints of parents afraid of their kids attending schools with too many rotten apples, so why not remove them? But alas this school board will never do such a thing. They will call you racist.m