[lizkm]

>In the US this has become increasingly frowned upon by (perhaps) well-meaning administrators who feel that to do this is unconscionable.

Because it is unconscionable. I dropped out of high-school at 16. I was able to go back and earn a degree in computer science at the age of 28 at a Canadian school. Under the European system where your life path and career trajectory is decided for you at 14 years old, I wouldn't have been able to do this.

[mieseratte]

What about tracking students in high-school precludes your being able to attend university at the age of 28?

Insofar as I'm aware, one can change tracks in most tracking systems. It just isn't entirely common, likely because it puts most on a path where they should be.

[lizkm]

> What about tracking students in high-school precludes your being able to attend university at the age of 28?

Because the "dumb" students are pushed into trades instead. And good luck going back to university when you don't have a long chain of prerequisite courses from age 14 onwards. In the states you can just get a GED and take the SAT (along with individual selection) to prove you belong in university.

Assigning a person a career based on a test they take at 14 seems awfully reductive and like it would segregate students based on the social standing of their parents. Wouldn't surprise me if the German system reduces social mobility.

Should students have their entire lives mapped out for them at 14? And if so, why at 14? Why not at 10, or 6, or at birth?

[mieseratte]

Nothing about a tracking system actively precludes your being able to jump tracks later in life. To be frank, you're blindly speculating based on this assumption.

> Assigning a person a career based on a test they take at 14 seems awfully reductive and like it would segregate students based on the social standing of their parents. Wouldn't surprise me if the German system reduces social mobility.

That's not how tracking works. They don't assign you a vocation.

[lizkm]

>Nothing about a tracking system actively precludes your being able to jump tracks later in life

Nothing necessarily precludes it but does it really happen that often? I couldn't find any data on this. Is there any evidence that "changing careers" is easier and more likely under the German VET system as opposed to the US system? In fact, evidence suggests that the permeability between the academic and vocational tracks is quite low in actuality [0]. One would logically think that making long "on the track" prerequisite chains a requirement for a career change would add significant barriers to entry. And there is some evidence that supports my theory that VET-like systems increase social stratification and socioeconomic inequity [1][2]

>They don't assign you a vocation.

A difference without a distinction IMO. They assign you a track of schooling which will leave you qualified for only a certain subset of jobs.

[0] https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/education/a-skills-beyond-scho... page 38

[1]: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s40461-016-0033-0

[2]: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/The-social-stratificat...

[irishsultan]

> Nothing necessarily precludes it but does it really happen that often? I couldn't find any data on this.

Does it happen often in the alternative system? You started with saying that you left school at 14, then went to university at 28. No matter the system that's going to be an unusual situation.

[username90]

You would just spend 1 year taking the requires courses in an adult education school and then getting a 3 year major. Seems pretty equivalent to doing a 4 year American major which had no prerequisites.

[DuskStar]

> Because it is unconscionable. I dropped out of high-school at 16. I was able to go back and earn a degree in computer science at the age of 28 at a Canadian school. Under the European system where your life path and career trajectory is decided for you at 14 years old, I wouldn't have been able to do this.

Would tracking you differently have perhaps resulted in you being able to graduate high school?

[imtringued]

You can just redo the 2 years of high school you missed out on.