If I Ran a School... Part 0: Introduction

This is going to be a multipart series, which will be updated periodically. Our school system is horrible. Everything revolves around the philosophy that "college means success", which is absolutely false. I propose a system, K-12 which provides students with a rounded education and options, rather than forgetting about those that would do better in a less "academic" career.

Firstly, at grade 8, the school is broken into an 8 class, alternating block schedule; That is, 4 classes on 1 day, the 4 the next. I would assume each class session would be 1:.5 - 1.75 hours. (I will address problems with the extended class/block system in a later section.) Perhaps a 1 hour homeroom or study hall would also be appropriate.

Along with the introduction of the block schedule, the classes will be split into 3 "tracks": Arts and Trades, Humanitites, Math and Science. (This will also be addressed in a later section.) Each student must select a track. years 8 and 9, each student must take 3 classes from their track, and 2 from each other; the remaining class is an elective. The remaining 3 years, 3, 2, 1, with 2 elective classes.

That is a quick and dirty run through the basics. I know there are problems, which I will address, and I know I will change some of the specifics, but I figure it's best to get something down.

Part 1 will be many-sectioned, and focus on everything I think is wrong with grade school math education.