Rethinking the American High School

That was actually refreshing. Acknowledging that lectures, etc, produce "bored compliance" in students. I'm also very glad that something, anything, worked better.

Unfortunately, there's this little issue with education in the US: "local control". There might be national policies, but there's no good way to enforce them. Local school boards decide curriculum. This is why nothing can change fast, and maybe not much can change, period.

I'll also note the effect that divisive issues (evolution, accurate history) cause huge problems. There's basically no recourse for students if a local school system decides to abdicate teaching accurate history of civil war, WW1, or Reconstruction, for example, never mind evolution, a well established scientific theory. Sometimes there'll be a fooforaw about something ridiculous, like using modern books to teach literature, or not memorizing arithmetic facts.

I went to one of the best public high schools in the country. It's consistently rated as one of the best in various nationwide rankings of non-magnet public high schools.

At my top public school, there was not a single great Math or Science teacher. Meanwhile, there were some amazing English, History, and Latin teachers.

So, naturally, a lot of top students gravitated away from Math and Science.