Americans also don't have testing for schools. The magnet and private schools do, but most American public schools just let you in. They may hold a student back, but not for long because a horny 13 year old is a big problem in grade school. Grade school was the traditional out point for students, so most left after that and went to work on the farm or factory.

Schools after that were more exclusive and demanded more from students. If you could prove yourself, you could make it to higher education, and even university. Both of my grandparents started at low levels and worked to the top. So a dirt farmer in Argentina became a dentist in Germany and the US, or a train worker went on to work in a chemistry lab studying radioactive materials and oil from shale. The US government paid for all of that in one way or another, but it made sense since so few did that. I won't go on and on, but things changed even when my Dad was getting his doctorate, and was a pyramid scheme by the time I got in.

However, schools can be different. In Germany, if you showed an aptitude for building and working with your hands they got you an apprenticeship style education. There have been some very smart people that came out of that. Many of the first real rocket engineers, the ones fought over near the end of World War II, didn't have a university education. The first terrorist bomber in Europe could rewire a pa system to communicate with his girlfriend in another cell. That's the official story anyway.

Education in England had two types, the geeky clerics and the world traveling rich. Private school was the teacher who took the students as they travelled to explain history and numbers. This was a very educated clerk. The term doctor and master came from the clerks. Rich people paid for their children to study and pass tests at monasteries and libraries for a better understanding.

The public school was the monastery and the private one was the traveling clerk. Since both got popular they separated and became their own thing after a long time. We still wear the clerical robes to show off how smart we are. The president of the school looks like he should be fighting crime.

The American school system was clerks only, and often paid for by public money and care. That's why it feels so different.

The Chinese had a similar thing with grand tests to move up to the next great rank. You knew the health of the dynasty based on how many applied for the test. If it was too many, the entire thing was about to collapse. There's a book about the Hell of this testing, but I can't remember the name and can't find it on Amazon.

Much of the testing we have in Europe came from those ideas, because it was such an important country to us at the time. The Americans basically got rid of that except for a few tests.

Sorry, I'm now thinking about it too much.