_kna2's comments

> I disagree w/ separation though --- this really should be achievable in a single building/system.

It should be achievable in a single building/system. And it would be great to have the funding, expertise, and coherent strategy to build a school system which helps students explore what they're interested in and find what suits them, and helps students in a personalised way.

However, to execute that you would need those three things - funding, expertise, and a coherent strategy. And I think part of the problems with schools is that they're on paper meant to do all of these amazing things - they're meant to have everyone under one roof and not have problems, they're meant to be endlessly forgiving to those with rough backgrounds and have them improve as a result, regardless of how many times they hurt those around them. Their ability to expell/suspend is heavily restricted, because schools shouldn't need to expel people. Schools are built around the assumption that they're close to this perfect utopia where everyone gets on well, and if we just make a few refinements to the implementation we'll be there. But they're nowhere near perfect, and I don't think that kind of utopia is anywhere near achievable. I don't know of anywhere where that's been achieved at scale.

What has been achieved at scale is building an education system that may not be able to provide for each student individually, but which at least has separate paths for the types of students they accommodate.

The EU publishes a document of the composition of European education systems (https://op.europa.eu/en/publication-detail/-/publication/d78...). While I haven't got first-hand experience of any of them (besides the UK one), I have spoken to people about it. The German system in particular appears to be quite well designed (though I may be wrong - this is from conversations with one person.) There are multiple tracks you can go down, which cater to different students. People can transfer between the tracks, generally at age 16, if they want to go to (state-paid-for) university.

What is clear is that single-track education systems are a rarity. If anyone here has first-hand experience I'd be interested in what you think of it.

> One of the best programs ever for fostering educational success was the one California had where land-grant colleges were required to accept the student with the highest GPA from each high school who applied and provide a full scholarship (so if the top 3 students got a better deal, then the student w/ the 4th highest GPA was guaranteed to be able to apply to a land-grant college and be accepted, and get full tuition and room and board). This was dismantled after college students began protesting the Vietnam War and draft.

That sounds like a great system. Robust education systems that support success and scholarships to allow people to continue in those systems regardless of background are some of the best tools for equality of opportunity and social mobility. There should really be more of that kind of thing - and without any identity-based strings attached.

Schools - and this is a problem in the UK as well - are incentivised to optimise for evenly distributed mediocrity, instead of allowing people to reach their potential.

Now, I'm not talking about race here - this is from my perspective in the UK.

Ultimately we need to split the education system up. Putting the next Einstein and a violent, disinterested drug dealer in the same school, let alone the same class, is a recipe for disaster. And no amount of giving the idiots targets will fix them, but it will make life hell for people who actually want to learn.

This one-size-fits-all, optimising for mediocrity attitude is evident in the move towards mixed sets. The idea is that by putting the intelligent kids and the violent, intentional failures in one class the intelligent kids encourage the others to improve. But in practice they're vastly outnumbered, so they just get relentlessly bullied and don't learn anything. I know, because it's happened to me.

And it's evident in the way schools handle behaviour. I was kicked in the head at school, twice, by a load of thugs. I'm still very slowly recovering from the post concussion syndrome. At this rate, I am likely to fail my exams and not get into what used to be my backup uni. It was an entirely preventable incident if only: - The school had entry requirements (it's meant to be a specialist technical school, but thanks to our enlightened government new grammar schools are banned.) - The school was able to expell them before it happened, what with them spending the whole time messing about and attacking my friend - The school had temporarily suspended more than the single person who punched my friend in the face when the whole group was there - The police, with it's restorative justice, letting under-18s get away with anything, policies, had actually done something the first time

But they didn't, and now my life is ruined, and they got away with it. Because of a series of brain dead policies that are disconnected from reality and pushed by people similarly disconnected from reality.

The school system should have separate schools for high achievers to allow them to succeed without violence and with the fast pace and high expectations they deserve. If people want to go to those schools they can put the work in, behave, and pay attention. It's time to stop feel-good policies about second chances and equity and optimise for success and meritocracy.