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Socializing students to show up on time is not just a by-product of the education system, but an important goal in and of itself. So much of adult life requires this skill, along with competence and accountability. This does not apply just to factory workers, but many more segments of society.

Think of all the customer facing services that would not work if people did not show up for their shift. Sorry sir, we cannot clear your plane to take off, as there is no one here at ATC to monitor you. Your server will be here to take your order when they decide to show up to work. Tonight's quartet will be a trio because the drummer did not show up.

Behind the scenes work also requires schedule discipline. The supply chain is invisible to most people, but when it fails grocery stores go empty. Whadya mean you didn't ship the munitions Charlie? Well, I forgot to load them on the plane. I'll get them on the next one.

The ability to choose one's own work hours is limited to a smaller subset of jobs than the set of jobs that require assigned coverage during specific working hours.

As an adult one may be able to negotiate early vs late shifts or specific days off, but only if the pool is large enough to provide coverage. Shortages of police are requiring officers to work mandatory overtime.

There may be a set of classes that auto-didactic students can take on their own at their own pace with limited help from computer lessons and using teachers as backups. It would be cost-effective and rewarding to these students to develop them.

Still, there is a place and time for lectures/discussions and a set of students that learn better that way. I would not like to be a lecturer in an classroom where students are moving freely in and out on a regular basis. I would find this very disruptive to my teaching efforts.

Students' ideas on what the consequences of a given idea or interpretation of literature, history, and probably other subjects should be allowed to be tested by the teacher and by the other students.

There is no training without testing (not effectively). Not sure I want my surgeon to learn everything they know via youtube. People do not know if they really know something until they are tested.

There is a known success sequence in life - it is not guaranteed, but it does increase the individual's odds. Learning to show up on time and to deliver on time is an important component of that sequence. Society as well as the individual benefits from this. Leaders get irritated at workers who show up consistently late for scheduled meetings. So building these softer but critical skills into the education system has merit.

May I also point out that the teachers have to show up on time and their classrooms must have working equipment, making them factory workers as well! The IT department that has to keep their computers, projectors, and printers working must also be available. Not to mention that the HVAC must be working as well as the lights.

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Scheduling is tricky, I"m all for the idea that students (especially ages 10+) should be in charge of their own time. At the high school level I would suggest tiers where on one end students who have proven to be mature and responsible are essentially free to roam and move about as needed and on another end students' time and movement is restricted until they can prove they're ready to move to a different tier and this tier system wouldn't necessarily be aligned with their cohort.

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