School in the future

A while back I wondered out loud about what would happen if we stopped schooling earlier and let our charges loose on the world a little earlier than we currently do. I’m half joking when I talk about the idea, but every step of it, I think, has some merits (even if the entirety does not work!). So – let’s put it out there. For the next little while I’ll try and expand on each section and how I think that it wouldn’t be that hard to implement, but for today – let’s put the whole model forward.

Firstly the model starts early with in-home education facilitators to teach parents to recognise cognitive and physical milestones of their babies and teach them how to monitor and extend their learning – I know this kind of exists with the parents as first teachers model but I mean rolling it out in a big way like Plunket. The next layer starts around the age of 2-3 with free and compulsory early childhood education with trained and registered teachers. Next up, primary school - starting one year earlier than our current five years old, but still taking 6 years. When the child hits 10 years old they move to intermediate school which now lasts 3 years. The next level is high school, starting as they do now at the age of around 13/14. Here is where the big changes come. High school now only lasts 3 years, year 1 would be NCEA 1, year 2 NCEA 2 and year 3 NCEA 3 (or equivalent in what-ever system you are working in). The next part, a compulsory year out of school – either in work, traveling or something similar. Finally, on to university, tech, trade school, apprenticeship or whatever you want/need to finish your training. 

So, there’s the model. On the surface it’s probably not that earth shattering. Just give me a bit of time to explain the parts of it out a bit more and then let’s see what you think.