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Matt Dale

Teacher and Coach, Canyon High School

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At what age could students abandon a general education and enter an immersion-type education in a field of their interest?

An idea I had for educational model where all students did a compulsory education (much different than what we have now) consisting of fundamental skills (academic, social, cultural, interpersonal, artistic, creative and many more life-relevant skills) and then, upon completion, spent the rest of their education immersed in fields where they engage in real life learning in an endless array of fields. Currently, our "compulsory" component lasts 13 years, and is filled with numerous required elements that are unnecessary and irrelevant, while neglecting opportunities for students to learn things that tap into their human potential. At that point, their "free" education is up and their pursuit of their own interests now come at their own financial cost. I imagine that the transition into this more individualized education could come at an earlier time and could be similarly funded by the government until around age 18 (as is the case with the current model).

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Topics: education
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  • Briannin Gross

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    Mar 13 2011: Well, alright. I think that it should be entirely in the students control to pick their specific education path, other wise they would be forced into one based on the skills they are shown to be proficient in. However the specific schools would still need to know if the student they are enrolling is talented or educated enough in what they wish to go into. So in that case the primary schooling before the specific schooling should track the students progress and the specific schools would except them based on that much like college.

    Or is that too narrow minded?
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      Matt Dale

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      Mar 13 2011: I think that each specific school would have some sort of criteria for the students it allowed in, but that opportunities to grow within the field would exist for a diverse array of abilities.

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