Agreed. At some point not long after high school, the syllabus explodes and there's just a huge amount of topics to learn. There's no one thing that you must learn, and there's nothing that you won't be able to learn, it's just that you probably won't have time to learn all of math/science/engineering.

The way I'd put it is the kids all need to learn things close to the pace that they can go. If there are kids who can go really fast, let them do that, find a teacher who teaches real analysis or whatever and let them get on with it.

On the other end of the scale, kids with difficulties need help too. Dyslexia needs to be discovered early, and anxieties related to learning need to be resolved.

Whether you think algebra is coming in too late or too early is not really the issue IMO, the idea of one-speed-fits-all is the real problem. I always wondered why education wasn't just a bunch of ladder steps. Pass a given course, get put on the next one asap. For all subjects, without cross-restrictions. For instance I'm still a relative beginner in creative writing, and I'll likely stay there, but I should be able to take some advanced math and coding courses.

I'll probably end up implementing this myself for my older kid via tutors, since he's interested in a lot of things above his year, but I think everyone would benefit if the system worked this way.