This has been the dream for, like, a century now... but schools are simply not structured to permit that. Actually about 20 years ago in the USA we/they doubled-down on the issue; the phrase "tracking students" into different classes or programs by ability was effectively prohibited everywhere, and is considered inequitable, immoral, and kind of offensive to even mention in many educational circles. The standard response in recent decades is that the bright kids should spend their time group-tutoring the slower kids.

The evidence is phenomenally consistent that the online self-paced stuff works great for professional people who've mastered college-level skills in reading, writing, and math... but falls on its face for people who don't have that. For example, every attempt at getting the horde of people who need algebra remediation through online course has been a disaster. UDacity tried it at San Jose state and was suspended after one semester. Community colleges in Philadelphia tried it and concluded "The failure rates were so high that it seemed almost unethical to offer the option". So I highly doubt you can replace elementary/secondary schools with this method; at that level, most student need a personal face and hand-holding through the material, especially with technical stuff like using, interpreting, and debugging online resources in the first place.

http://www.angrymath.com/2013/06/online-remedial-courses-considered.html
http://www.angrymath.com/2013/07/san-jose-state-suspends-udacity.html

All of those things are effectively applications of the general physics class, which we do in fact teach and require.

Christ, a one-semester programming course is not a commitment to a particular career. No more than it is for chemistry, physics, or biology. Everyone should have an idea of the basic building blocks of the world around them; cargo cultists are not what we need.

"my archive set is large (3+TB) and sensitive (taxes, bank statements, account numbers, passwords, etc)"

Surely tax, bank, account, and password data does not add up to terabytes.

"Right now, the 15% capital gains tax rate is so high that it discourages middle- and lower-income people from investing..."

That seems incoherent/illogical. If they can "only" pocket 85% of the free money from investing, what, people make the decision to blow it on a new TV or car instead? And if that rate was changed by 5% or something they'd change their behavior? That's nonsense.

Bullshit, and a pox on the prequel apologists. As an adult in the last decade or so I've seen all kinds of movies (et. al.) that fill me with equal enjoyment as the original Star Wars movies when I was a kid/teen. Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings movies, most of the Marvel superhero movies, etc., truly amazing works of wonder. But Lucas' prequels were appalling, offensive crap. Even among the original movies the standout is Empire which he didn't direct.

Very interesting, thanks for the info.

I think that "confining" was also intended to be "confiding".

"My wife and I are even considering allowing our older child to take the Metro (public transit) to ballet by herself next year when she's in middle school."

That's totally the culture here in NYC... around 3pm when the schools get out the sidewalks, buses, and subways are mobbed with kids traveling from school to wherever on their own. I'm guessing, like, on the order of a million every day. It's so strange to read about such a different culture just a couple states down.

What state/city was that?

Wow, what a fantastic response! Thanks for that.

I must admit, I was unfamiliar with the concept of little corner stores lining all the streets around the corner from where I lived until I moved from a rural area to New York City. I found it to be crazy wonderful and convenient.

For what it's worth, here in New York City (I live in Brooklyn) there are kids all over the place commuting between home & school by themselves all the time. Around 3pm when the schools get out the sidewalks and city buses are literally swarming with the little folks, definitely all ages from elementary through junior high school. They all seem pretty confident, content, and safe about it (if rambunctious). The idea that half the city would have to mobilized to follow around this million-magnitude number kids one-at-a-time would immediately gridlock the entire metropolitan area!

Something less than 52%.