Of course you learned more on your own. It's impossible for a general purpose curriculum to be that good.

The fact that this is true doesn't make it good. Professors have better things to be doing with their time than teaching kids how to use commas and that Gladiator isn't a realistic portrayal of history. It's a dumb way to structure our education system.

I assume I'm not getting an answer on my points.

Ah well.

I'm in on THAT mantrain:

Elementary school is certainly NOT a free baby-sitting service.

a) It is not free.
b) Baby sitters have more authority over their wards than teachers. (Kind of sad actually.)
c) It's all elementary. Remember?

Highschool, however, is basically adolescent day care. It wasn't so long ago that children that age became apprentices or entered the workforce. However, as the time a man could work lengthened, we discovered that we needed to delay the entry of the adolescent into the workforce to preserve the job of the older man. Thus we invented highschool.