This thread is quite appropriate as I just had a dream today of being in middle school again. I woke up so grateful that I am in the high school I am in. In middle school it was all pointless busy work that anybody with half a brain could solve. The teachers hardly allowed us to question the text book and everything was unbearably dull. On the other hand, my high school is a place that encourages interesting ideas. All my teachers either have PhDs or are currently working towards one. They understand the value of learning and make classrooms a productive and fun place to be in. In fact in 10th grade, my history professor spend a whole class period disproving an ignorant conclusion of our textbook. This demonstrated to us that not everything in textbooks are correct, and often the academics who write them have biases.
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Regardless, I think the real purpose of most public schools is exactly what Noam Chomsky said in this video:
https://youtube.com/watch?v=TUwBc-GvFFM&list=LLillMlCGgjMxYJgGaKNztIQ&index=22
"It's a system of Indoctrination of the Young", pretty much summarizes most public education.
Like me.