So we're designing the system from the ground up correct?
Well, in my case it would start out much the same, everyone would begin in classes like kindergarten, at which point you would learn basic skills. Reading, Writing, and how to think logically, and work through things. These would be split into different levels as soon as it became evident how the child wanted to think (I know there's a fancy word but I can't find it). These would continue from around 5 to around 12. At this point you've been taught basics and how to think. Now classes would slowly become more open ended and more project orientated until the end of your education.
This is becuase you NEED to know how to think. You could memorize a text book but 10 years from now, it won't help you becuase the material has changed. But if you know how to read, you can read the textbook that comes along ten years alter.
I've ridden the edge of our districts overhaul of how it divides students and teaches them. I've been on both sides of the sword, distributed at random and grouped. I didn't learn as much when everyone wanted to move at different speeds, and the teacher was trying to teach everyone at the same speed.
Also I feel that basic skills need to be taught at lower levels. As a freshman, I just learned how to write an English paper. I spent my entire 8th grade year memorizing parts of speech, by which time my brain has already started to lose its ability to memorize. On the flip side my sister did a research paper at the start of 6th grade. Full blown, with a bibliography, notes, everything. She had been taught none of it in segments, just given this project. Basic skills need to be taught before more advanced ones. When I was in sixth grade I learned how to do a research paper in segments. First they taught you how to take good notes in an organized manner and you were graded on that. Then they taught you how to do an outline, and you were graded on that, so on and so forth.
Probably the most important class I've ever taken was "IT" or Industrial Technology. The teacher felt much the same way I do now. I took it from 6th to 8th grade. In sixth grade everything was very limited in how much choice you got. By grade eight it was much more open ended and if you didn't want to do anything or follow directions, he let you, and eventually you'd come back realizing you'd fallen on your face and he'd pick you back up. I learned how to think, and how to follow directions, both of which are more important than learning how to turn on a bandsaw.
NEW STUFF
I agree with Joe, standardized testing will be torn up, thrown in the garbage burned, and dumped into the ocean. I live in Maine, which last year decided they were going to go overboard on standardized testing. For my 4th quarter of 8th grade I was going to spend more days testing than learning! X-Whaaat?!?! The governor's wife, who was a teacher, realized that it was too much and they backed off quite a bit. Whewww
