The western educational system (to the definition of western that includes Japan) today, especially in the United States, but also in other western industrialized countries is an adaptation of the Prussian education system. It seems that modern Cheder/day schools almost uniformly follow this kind of system, with characteristics like different teachers per student year, students divided by age groups, centralized curriculum, dictation and memorization focus, written tests and grading and similar characteristics. My observation is that this is true even in schools that do not teach any secular subjects.
Some religious schools branch out into other secular education ideas, such as Montessori, etc., again following the lead of the school and class structure of the secular world. A distinctively Jewish approach (chavrusa, zal, etc.) to learning doesn't seem to emerge until high school age or later.
However, the Talmud seems to describe a different system, focused on single teachers that last with the students for many years, and the Rambam (who even describes specific parameters of a school day and a school year differently than the current practice) seems to indicate the same thing.
Does anyone discuss this, and how appropriate the current system is vis-a-vis traditional practice and Halacha?
Has anyone tried to establish a school more modeled on how it "used to be done" (to however they understand it) before the general Prussian influence and establishment of secular public education?
[That may seem like two questions, but the second one is really to help the first - if someone tries such a thing, they will state their agenda and reasons behind it.]
