| For my thoughts on grading as merely filtering: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Signalling_(economics) For the content of the "lessons" being largely irrelevant, ask: what can anyone remember from their lessons at 14? The answer is random with respect to the individual: I cannot predict what you will know. Really only fragments of trivia were acquired. This is the opposite situation of skill acquisition: if you are a practising plumber/doctor/programming, I can predict what you will know. This test, predicting the knowledge/ability of a person who practices a skill, really defines successful education. What can you predict a person knows after high school? You might also look at "Discipline and Punish" or works to that effect to gain a socio-political perspective on the scheduling/routines/rituals of certain institutions. It is no accident that a school closely resembles a prison. That is its primary function: to limit the behaviour of children, to discipline them into conforming with the scheduling of working life, to occupy their time. When you are tutored (to play a piano, in mathematics, etc.) you are really acquiring a skill: to play a piano, etc. Contrast those two environments. Learning a skill requires an environment almost the opposite of a prison, it requires a patient and highly skilled tutor, and some attentive practice and engagement. (Infant/primary education is closer to tutoring than high school). Imagine high school not starting until 14 at which point you spent 4 years with tutors: at most classes of 5 with skilled mentors that guided you through skilled practice. Consider the social environment: how you'd interact with peers, your relationship to your mentor, the hours you'd keep, how much practice you'd get. Contrast this again with prison life within a school: the teacher is not a mentor, they are a master. An enemy largely. You and your peers are at war for attention and time. |