I think this falls under Epistemology.
I was thinking of a new system for teaching children. Here in Canada, children go to nursery, kindergarten, then grades 1-12 to finish basic schooling. Each grade attempts to educate the children new information that builds on knowledge from a previous grade.
The problem is that they may be allowed to move on to subsequent grades, depending on whether failing grades is allowed by the school system. In this way, students move on to subsequent grades just because they stayed in class the whole year, regardless of whether they have acquired/comprehended the information from the grade. Also, when I went to school, it was easy to get bored because I already knew what was being taught, but had to stay in class anyway.
As a base for comparison, each student takes, essentially, one nursery "class", one kindergarten "class", 9 classes for each grade in elementary(grades 1-6), 10 classes for each grade in middle school(grades 7-8), and 8 classes for each grade in high school(grades 9-12); so roughly 108 classes in their primary education lifetime.
The system I thought of, allows students to build on skills they already have, and when they have matured enough to handle courses they have trouble with, they can take it:
- classes are only passed/completed if the student can pass the classes' exam;
- students can take class-completion exams whenever they want;
- students can only take classes if they complete prerequisite classes;
- students may only stop attending classes if they complete the class or drop out;
- every year, a student must fill a minimum of 9 classes
- students graduate by completing all 108 classes
An example of a student who is good at math:
- year 1, which is 9 classes in the current system:
- grade 1 Math( test only )
- grade 2 Math( test only )
- grade 3 Math( test only )
- grade 4 Math( class )
- grade 1 Language Arts( class )
- grade 1 French( class )
- grade 1 Social Studies( class )
- grade 1 Health and Physical Education( class )
- grade 1 Music( class )
- grade 1 Science( class )
- grade 2 Science( class )
- grade 1 Art( class )
This system allows progression based on skill: so what's wrong with it?