The pre-college education in the US really is that bad (pg references it in one of his essays). I took a typing class in 9th grade (closest thing we had to computers in my "backwoods" school). I was typing up to around 115 wpm or so, maybe faster, but the teacher was so awful I didn't take any of her classes again until 12th grade. By then, for some reason my speed had lowered and after years of touch typing I've never got the speed back to what it was.
Lots of people remember some specific quote a teacher said that effected their life in some way. The quote I remember from this teacher was "I don't know and I don't care, I'm just here to get a paycheck".
Seriously, High School is 1300 hours of 'busy work'? Or just memorising lists of facts?
The equivalent period of my education in the UK could in no way be described in this way.
It's not really this bad, is it? It's just people dissing studying things they don't want to study, right?