[GoLightly]

That sounds very close to what I was told is or was the German system. Kids are tracked differently, based on abilities, starting after the 8th grade. High school is college prep & only the qualified can go that route. The rest of the kids go thru trade school, with a smattering of subjects with a liberal arts bent, such as a continuation of the foreign languages they started in the earlier grades.

The high school my kids went to had both a college prep track & a track towards a few different trades. Things done at the high school included apprenticeships in a few fields & one class builds a new house every year. There's also an agricultural program, cuz a percentage of the students live & work on family farms.

[Aquinasfan]

That sounds very close to what I was told is or was the German system. Kids are tracked differently, based on abilities, starting after the 8th grade.

Doesn't this smack of totalitarianism? We're talking about living, breathing human beings here. It gives me the creeps.