[jerome]

whilst i mostly agree with dante's sentiments (and nod on the whole) tomkat is entirely right, it's only in the extremely rare cases that there are students under the age of 16 (and even then, i doubt it really) that are mentally strong enough to learn fairly independently. however, there should definitely be an inclusion of an idea such as 'free study' periods except something with a better name and with someone to supervise or at least set a guide line for kids to explore under with their own interests instead of disregarding the time completely and using it as more time for socialising.

i'm obviously not yet sure how university learning works but from sixth form onwards learning should really be independent unless it's vocational education and specifically set syllabuses are not a good idea at all. something like nodrog's weekly competition but expanded upon and in much more depth is what i'd find fitting.

oh at some point, some education with regards to how 'life works' with all bureaucratic shit everyone has to get through such as taxing and pretty much most other reasonably important things everyone has to know would help in shitty 'careers' lessons instead of re-doing your simplistic CV at the age of 15/16 70 times throughout the course of a year and trying to decide what job you want already because seriously noone that young needs to have decided by then already