I have to disagree with you about letting kids go their own way at 14, when they're hormonal time bombs with more pimples than sense. Age 16 is fine
I think the option needs to be there. Some kids just dont do school well. Some kids are meant to be manual labor.
I think that's exactly my point.
However, in the U.S., partly because we base our educational tracks on "parental choice" rather than realistically looking at the students' achievement, abilities, and interests, we're still pretending to try to educate everyone for college.
Denigrating vocational education as "the slut track" doesn't help any, IMO.
If after 8 years, students aren't showing the interest or ability to go to college, I think they should be sent to apprenticeships, real jobs, or vocational training, as many other countries do.
If students who have the ability to do college work but don't work hard enough to succeed in a college preparatory curriculum later mature and decide they'd like that option, I think it should be available to them, but I think our system as currently constructed wastes the time and efforts of many teachers and students by pretending we're preparing everyone for college.