Our Education System Cannot Change Until We Abandon the Age-Based Classroom
It’s that simple.
Most of the educational disasters we face, and especially the Covid related ones, can be managed if we abandon our dedication to the age-based structure. We need to stop freaking out over students not ‘meeting grade level expectations’ and start re-organizing our schools on a different platform.
Try this: Take everyone you’ve ever known, from your closest relationships to the smallest encounters. Everyone. Your spouse, the checkout clerk, your mechanic, your boss, the local policeman, the lazy bum your sister’s married to. Everyone.
Now group all of those people, every single one, solely by age. Clump everyone within a year period defined only by their birthdays, let’s say September 1st to August 31st. Everyone born between September 1 and August 31 around 1982 is in one group. 1983 another, 1979 another. Gender, race, interests, parents, nationality, religion, growth — none of that matters one bit. Just the birthday.
Then randomly put them into groups of twenty-five, place each group in a room full of desks, and measure them on one specific skill. Insist they must master that skill in a year or they are failures.
