I was amazed when I was in Germany, France, and Italy at the depth of knowledge the kids had in specific areas compared to those in the U.S. It is an obvious difference. Does it prepare the student more for life than an overall level of education would though? I'm not sure.

I would be concerned about choosing a path as early as the 7th grade myself. I like the idea of focusing on an area (we have schools as well as magnet schools here that do that now as early as middle school) for those students that show an academic excellence in a specific area. We have math/science schools and schools that focus on the arts, etc. We also have the 'AG' program which my daughter is in which is for the 'Academically Gifted.' I don't know that she is benefiting any by participating in it. To me it seems that they just assign more homework! I know that her class finished the entire year's program by January and now they are going on to other things but it all looks like refresher stuff to me and just lots and lots of homework which can actually be terrible for a child in middle school because they can burn out and lose interest. They need to have their attention grabbed IN SCHOOL not at home. I think our schools rely too much on the children learning at home as it is. I've visited the school and seen students teaching the class and teachers spending the entire class on the computers doing admin stuff while the students flounder and do their work at home if they are not motivated to get it done in class. Then the homework is doubled.

I did very well in school and took honor's classes and always attained straight A's but I changed my mind so many times on what I wanted to do in the future that I don't know that I would have wanted to be focused on a specific path that early. I had art teachers trying to convince me to make that my future as well as my special math instructors pushing me in that direction. The science teachers did that too. I spent one year working as a teacher's assistant in the 8th grade because I was a year ahead and my science teacher spent the entire year trying to convince me to go into the sciences. Taking many courses and electives gave me more choices I think and alittle bit of personal knowledge of different areas that I would not have had if I focused entirely on a specific area. There are only so many hours in the day afterall. Right now we have many parents struggling to get their kids into a few 'select' high schools here in NC that focus on specific areas. I'm just not sure that it is the best idea.


>>Well I spoke with her at lunch today and she agrees that education is much better in Bulgaria than in the U.S. on a whole. She told me that parents choose their children's academic future in the 7th grade based on tests and capabilities and the student is enrolled into specialized schooling (math/science, languages, etc) after that point. According to her, students not academically gifted or prepared for college are actually 'filtered out' before they reach college age.
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>I don't know about anyone else, but that sounds horrible...