School System 2.0?

Random thought I had last night:  What if the Canadian secondary school system was revamped entirely to put a greater emphasis on autonomy and individual choice?

So I thought up an idea for a school system that seems pretty cool (in theory, at least).

Key points:

• Freeform schedules: Instead of a fixed schedule, students would attend classes in whatever order they wanted.  (Each course would run for all four periods – under different teachers, of course – and be available for any student who is taking said course.)
• Instead of a single teacher, students would have the opportunity to be taught by different teachers (ie through attending classes during different periods).  In addition, coursework would be marked by all the teachers of that course.
• Classes would be taught predominantly through lectures due to the fluctuating class numbers.  (Work periods could be held periodically for students to ask for help, study, etc.)
• Class attendance would not be a factor in passing the course.  Instead, there would be a greater emphasis on handing in assignments (ie in theory, a student could skip every class and pass, as long as their coursework was submitted and the exam written – said student would have to pass on said assignments/exam, obviously.)

Pros

• Like I mentioned before, autonomy. A focus on individual choice would develop self-control.
• Emphasis on self-learning would promote independence.
• Learning from multiple teachers would allow students to ask more teachers for advice.

Cons

• Ever-changing classes and lecture-style teaching would make students more anonymous (ie teachers may not know of a student’s individual problems, and therefore would be hard-pressed to adapt such a structured teaching style.)
• Lectures cannot cater to all learning styles.
• The freedom to attend classes or not would definitely be abused by some.

Don’t read too much into it, I just decided to entertain this thought for a while.

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