I completely disagree that a nation should require all of its students to study the same curriculum until they enter college. A nationwide educational standard would inherently ignore the varying levels of intelligence and rates of academic development present in every student. Children are required to attend school to have their academic performance evaluated and to discover and cultivate their personal and professional talents, beliefs, and interests. Those developed attributes lead to decisions about higher education and career paths after educational minimums are satisfied.
With a national standard in mind, for this set of facts to apply, academic minimum requirements would have to be increased. Additionally, the number of years as well as the number of days per year, that a student attended school, would need to be extended. This would be necessary to ensure that every student had the opportunity to learn the exact same rules, principles, and disciplines as his or her peers, regardless if any or all of them applied to every student in a given curriculum.
This ideology also assumes that every student would have the practical ability to attempt to learn everything in a system like this. For example, not everyone who has the ability to be an auto mechanic has the ability to design an automobile. In conclusion, a student who discovers that they excel in math and decides to pursue a degree in Mechanical Engineering should not have to take introductory journalism or advanced art classes before they move on to college.
If a curriculum could be adjusted to allow for a national education standard, more students would drop out or fail due to the amount of information that has to be mastered. More students would be considered unfit based on the new requirements, making higher education, where applicable even more difficult to attain. The idea is unrealistic when a reasonable person considers the resources needed to implement a national education system and the inevitable results of such a broad attempt to prepare everyone, for the same playing field, in the exact same fashion.
