When should students start college level work?

A little background information so that you can understand where the American and Martinican students are coming from:

Nationally debate abounds as to whether high school curricula are rigorous enough to meet the demands of the 21st century.  Many students take as many Advanced Placement (AP) classes as possible ideally to challenge themselves and pursue subjects that they have a passion for but also undoubtedly to impress college admission officers with their seriousness and dedication to studying. Some teachers and students complain that students are taking on too hard a work load and that they are sacrificing too much. Nevertheless, AP class are becoming more and more popular and some students can get a year's worth of college credit or more while still in high school. Thus while in high school they are really doing college work.

In France the most ambitious and hard working students enter a post high school program called cours preparatoires which is to prepare them for a extremely difficult and competitve exam that would give them access to the most prestigious universities in France.  Because fewer than 7% of the students who take the exam are allowed into the Ecole Normale Superieure (and remember it's only the very highly selected elite who even try) the vast majority of students go from the two years they spent studying in the cours preparatoires directly into third year at the university. These students are effectively getting two years of university education while still on the high school campus.  From my American point of view this is a huge bargain because you don't pay for those two years but really even if you were to go directly to college in France college tuition costs are nominal so it doesn't really make a big economic difference. I do however think there are other differences like less freedom and less access to a high quality library. There is some talk that in the current desire to reform the high school system in France that the cours preparatoires might be moved to the university campus as a way to save money.

Please correct me if I've misrepresented any of the above information.

The article for this week questions when it is best for students to start studying college level work and also how society can best educate students at the lowest cost.

http://roomfordebate.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/02/18/a-diploma-in-10th-grade/

1. Read at least one of the experts's viewpoints and briefly summarizing it say whether you agree or disagree with it and why.

2. Give your own opinion as to how we might best educate our high school and college students.
You are encouraged to consider the economic implications of what you think would be the best system.

3. Reflect on your current education. Is society getting the best deal? Are you? What might be improved?

Are you a multi-tasker?

Thanks to Ms. Aucoin for finding us this great article. She suggested it because it highlights the question of opportunity cost but I think it will also be a great cultural exchange because I'm guess (we'll see if I'm wrong) that Martinicans are less likely to multi-task than the constantly on the go New Yorkers. Please read this article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/17/technology/17distracted.html?emc=eta1
and consider these questions:
1. Do you multitask? If so, how?


2. According to the article, what are the potential side effects of multitasking?

3. Are the risks worth it?

4. Should society encourage -- or discourage -- multitasking?