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61 - That's too bad they don't have many of those programs anymore. They can do great things.

It is one of the places that the great German craftsmanship and trademen come from.

In their system (at least the way it was when I was there in the 70's), they divide the kids in about 8th grade, those who are going to be 'workers' and those who are going after more education. For the 'workers', they start 7-8 year apprenticeship programs. For others they go on to 'hoch schule', where when they graduate, they are basically about two years ahead of our students here, before they go on to college.

So, they get fine craftsmen and fine scholars. One size does not fit all.

I used to be against that --- I figured everyone should take college-prep courses because they might not plan to go to college right now -- but at some later point they may like to and it would be better to have had those courses.

I think now that it's not practical to believe everyone must or will go to college --- they need to be prepared for a job and if they aren't coming to class every day or showing much interest --- it's better they get job skills --- they can still change their minds later and take the classes then.