> The American school is striking in its emphasis on externally managed curricula, state-wide tests, etc. It feels like the teachers are competent but nobody trusts them.

One of the most important things to understand how America works, I think, is to appreciate that blame-avoidance is the #1 priority of basically all actors who matter—which itself isn't that unusual—and also that we also have a bizarre cultural blindness to same, such that we'll give people a pass when they plainly are responsible just because they set something up in advance to shift the blame (to e.g. a system of rules or a committee).

The flip side of this is that we crucify people who can have mistakes pinned on them, or admit to a mistake.

"No-one got fired for buying IBM" is practically a national motto for us.

We'll tolerate a chronically-broken and ineffective system far, far longer than we will an individual making one bad choice for every ten good ones they make.

Keeping this in mind makes a lot of how our institutions and "decision-makers" operate much clearer.