--- Kevin Tarr <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: <snippage> > At a certain age, I think it was 12, the students > are ran through a battery > of tests. If they do good, they are pushed towards > more education. If not, > they are put into a trade type school. If a parent > feels his kid should be > in the academic track, they can send them to a > private school or get > tutoring to help them continue. I'm sure it's easy > for a child to want to > go the trade track. If the student has behavior > problems in the academic > track, they can be easily kicked out. So right there > the teachers and > administrators have more power and control. If a kid > is kicked out, he can > go to a trade school, or a private school. > > When the kids were 18, they took another set of > tests. Those with good > grades could go to free public college. Those with > lesser scores had to pay > for college, whether public or private, or start > working. <snip>
I think developing "trade-oriented" vs. "academic-oriented" programs makes sense; the trick would be to keep it from being discriminatory toward minorities. I don't see why someone who has loved being a 'tinkerer' and enjoys fixing leaky faucets should be forced to sit in a classroom all day, not-learning trigonometry and iambic pentameter. Plumbing is a portable, valuable vocation which allows self-employment as well as union/contract work. But as some people who were poor scholars as kids later become motivated to return to academia, I'd like to see flexible programs, including at least one year of classroom/campus environment (the rapid flow and "off-on-neat-tangents" experience is tough to reproduce without face-to-face encounters, IMHO), for these adult students. [I don't have any experience with community/junior colleges; can anyone comment on whether they could (or already do) fulfill this role?] Debbi who cannot remember a time when she didn't want to *know*...'most everything! :) __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? SBC Yahoo! DSL - Now only $29.95 per month! http://sbc.yahoo.com _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
