Public schools (and their private counterparts) are not really in existence to teach you science, history, geography, language skills, or math. They are there to teach you to obey authority and jump at the sound of a bell.
It has been estimated that you can be taught all the skills you need in order to take care of your own education in about 100 hours. The rest of the time, usually 12 years of formal schooling, is used for teaching you something that is much more difficult. It teaches you to betray yourself. This lesson didn't set well for some of us.
In high school, when a teacher used a small pickled flounder as an example in a test and called it a skate (as an example of chondrichthyes) I refused to go along. The teacher got very angry at my insistence, but I felt it was important to not give the kids false information. He never admitted he was deceiving the class, but he knew I knew.
I'm sure my life would be easier had I absorbed my lessons in obedience, but I would not trade my independence for ease. Well.... maybe sometimes.
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