Tell me what you really think.
My brother and his wife would see this as an argument for home schooling....that is, if the family is large. They have eight kids themselves and use many of these same positions when those of us who don't understand try and encourage them to let their kids see more of the world and go to a regular school.
In a perfect world your ideas here would work. However, there is the variable of parents, many of them uninvolved except to complain when their child is not promoted (deserving or not). It all goes back to the parenting or lack of parenting, doesn't it?
Often we go away from things we've always done and that have always worked for no apparent reason. Someone somewhere cooks up some theory that it will be better this way.
Sometimes I wonder if graduate and post graduate work is destroying society.
We've lost community, except for tiny islands like yours.
Doesn't grouping by age have something to do with the school's mission to provide appropriate social interactions for students? While I agree that it would be nice for kids to be grouped by ability, it certainly seems to make sense to give some thought to their maturity.
One of the most pathetic things I've ever witnessed in this regard was an interview with a 12 year old boy genius who was determined to broker peace between two Somali warlords. Because he was so bright and had excelled academically, he truly believed he could add something to their negotiations, though it was painfully obvious that he had neither the maturity nor the life experience to be of much value in his efforts.
Similarly, it seems to me that it would be socially devastating to tell a 14 year old that she would be in a reading group with kids significantly younger. I'm no fan of advancing kids based strictly on age, but there has to be a middle ground here - summer school, tutoring, additional assignments, etc. I see the value in a focus on developing the whole person; it seems to me that the extra effort required to advance one aspect or another is worthwhile.
Perhaps you've been reading too much Laura Ingalls Wilder. ;~)
We are blessed with many educational options in WA: State-funded community college for juniors and seniors in high school, an amazing early entrance program at UW, and supplementary homeschool centers (no grade levels) managed by parents and funded by the public schools.
Leon Botstein, president of Bard College and music director of the American Symphony, agrees with you. Jefferson's Children: Education and the Promise of American Culture (New York, 1977, ISBN 0385475551)
YAY!
I love this post.
When we (and I do it, too) object to kids being held back, we really must stop and think: Why?
Is it the stigma? Is it because we're afraid of what their friends will say? Both of these things go away when it becomes more common.
My wife teaches at a junior college (I guess it's a community college) and her favorite students are those that graduated a while back, worked and/or raised a family, and now have come back to school for a different degree. They add a lot to the mix, it seems.
It seems that in matters like this, it is the parents (or "outsiders") that have a problem with changing the status quo.
I just read an article in Mothering about places that are bringing back multi-age classrooms (and not just homeschoolers).
I think it could work for some kids, but not all. I have a friend who teaches in a private school, with elementary and middle schoolers in the same room. It works. My grandma likes to talk about her one-room schoolhouse she went to 
I can see how it would work for my daughter, who is 11, but advanced in some areas (and as a result, bored, even in a few of her advanced classes). One con (IMO) would definitely be the maturity issues--she could do math with 14 yr olds, but I know she's not that mature yet.
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