A Proposal for the Reengineering of the Educational System

Abstract

We propose a reengineering of the educational system that focuses on mastery and on more substantial learning activities and eliminates the constraints on learning that arise from the current insistence on grouping children by age. Our basic argument is that eliminating the age-based approach to education has striking advantages that outweigh any social disadvantage. Age-based grouping is, in historical terms, a recent reaction, driven initially by social trends that grew partly out of the realization that children pass through developmental stages and even more out of a wave of superficial approaches to efficiency that attended the beginning of mass production in industry. Through most of history, age grouping has been minimal. We think there are good reasons for this, which we discuss below. The most powerful reason is the extremely large variance found in any index of learning achievement, even in relatively homogeneous populations. We further argue that modern information systems allow richer educational activities, research-based methods, and multiage schooling to proceed efficiently and effectively. This creates a moral imperative to provide real learning opportunities to the whole of the student population.