I’m really into the education model that gives students the power to decide what they want to learn, and which takes the time to make sure every student gets up to speed before fully moving on. More specifically, I’m really into Sweden’s education system - from what I’ve heard/read students actually want to go to school, and they actually learn stuff.

I read a while ago that a big issue with American schools is that children need to learn that they need to learn, and anyone who’s handled a child for any period of time should understand that they’re extremely unwilling to accept new things without reason. So in this system, we throw children into an environment that shockingly obviously doesn’t give a shit about them and expect them to thank us for it. It doesn’t take a cowboy to identify a cow on pasture, nor does it take a psychology professor to realize this system is a meat grinder not an education. Learning must benefit the child directly, either through fun or through actually usable skills - or the child’s going to learn to hate learning.

So really a TLDR style of simple answer; make the school environment work for the kids, don’t make the kids work for the school environment. Tests are great, but having to remember complex history or maths only for a test is a perfect way to make students hate any subject.

(also IMO Cuba and China have really good schooling systems that seem to be effective)