I agree that that wouldn’t be a valuable thing for schools to do. I would be interested though in a gears level explanation of how they lock in the older students, and whether the effect is a positive one for the education of those older students. If so then we have an obvious technique to improve schools—get that effect for all students not just the older ones.
I suppose that in the first few grades of elementary school, the difference of almost one years matters a lot. Going by the old model “IQ = 100 × mental age / physical age”, being a 7 years old child in a group of 6 years old children is like getting +16 IQ points. You are also physically stronger, emotionally more mature, etc.
So it’s kinda like getting a magical pill that makes you 16% better at everything when you start school attendance, and then the effect of the pill slowly expires… but you still get the secondary effects of prestige, self-confidence, special opportunities received when you won some competitions, higher motivation, etc.
To get that effect for everyone, you would have to somehow make everyone older than their classmates.
On the flipside framing, currently the younger kids have a magical curse that makes them 16% worse at everything, and ideally we would be able to get rid of that.
I agree that that wouldn’t be a valuable thing for schools to do. I would be interested though in a gears level explanation of how they lock in the older students, and whether the effect is a positive one for the education of those older students. If so then we have an obvious technique to improve schools—get that effect for all students not just the older ones.
I suppose that in the first few grades of elementary school, the difference of almost one years matters a lot. Going by the old model “IQ = 100 × mental age / physical age”, being a 7 years old child in a group of 6 years old children is like getting +16 IQ points. You are also physically stronger, emotionally more mature, etc.
So it’s kinda like getting a magical pill that makes you 16% better at everything when you start school attendance, and then the effect of the pill slowly expires… but you still get the secondary effects of prestige, self-confidence, special opportunities received when you won some competitions, higher motivation, etc.
To get that effect for everyone, you would have to somehow make everyone older than their classmates.
On the flipside framing, currently the younger kids have a magical curse that makes them 16% worse at everything, and ideally we would be able to get rid of that.