Also, people tend to keep doing things because that’s how they do things, not because it’s inherently the best thing to do. Consider natural selection: organisms have all sorts of weird and useless features that are there because they don’t critically hinder their ability to reproduce; it’s all just good enough to not get outcompeted. To draw a parallel, some societies have summer breaks because they had summer breaks, and there’s no external force requiring a change.
Sure—but notice that the US, UK, and many other places converged on the same behavior—which in most cases arose as a consensus among local schools that hit on similar practices without any central coordination. Which suggests that the behavior is more than a historical accident.
I was thinking of the US system.
Also, people tend to keep doing things because that’s how they do things, not because it’s inherently the best thing to do. Consider natural selection: organisms have all sorts of weird and useless features that are there because they don’t critically hinder their ability to reproduce; it’s all just good enough to not get outcompeted. To draw a parallel, some societies have summer breaks because they had summer breaks, and there’s no external force requiring a change.
Sure—but notice that the US, UK, and many other places converged on the same behavior—which in most cases arose as a consensus among local schools that hit on similar practices without any central coordination. Which suggests that the behavior is more than a historical accident.
It’s easier to copy someone else’s system than to optimize a new one yourself.
And since America is the greatest country on earth they came up with it right?