Originally Posted by
Mike Kreinhop
The German school system does exactly that. All children attend Grundschule through the fourth grade. At the fifth grade, the school system branches out to Hauptschule (grades 5-9), Realschule (grades 5-10), and Gymnasium (grades 5-12). Hauptschule and Realschule are a mix of classroom and vocational training that lead to apprenticeship and employment in the career path chosen at the start. Gymnasium (pronounced gim-na'-zee-um) is the academic path for university.
I certainly didn't know what I wanted to do with my life at the start of the fifth grade, but this decision is routinely made here. Once a career path or trade skill is chosen for the child, it seldom changes. However, high performers in Realshule sometimes have the opportunity to change to Gymnasium and go on to college.