School ruins kids and how it has probably ruined you too

This article seems written from someone in their own kind of bubble. Here are the first 5 things in a list of supposedly irrelevant things school teaches:

> Values and mindsets taught by the school system:

> 1. Conform to top-down structures and one-size-fits-all curricula

> 2. Obey the authority figure

> 3. Ask permission for anything you’re not explicitly told to do

> 4. Truth comes from authority, defiance will be punished

> 5. Success comes from pleasing authority figures

Far from being "the exact opposite of what every employer in the 21st century is looking for", these are exactly what many employers want from most of their employees. Even in supposedly high-tech companies, insufficient deference to authority - even if technically correct - is punished[1].

In this sense, school actually does a remarkably good job of introducing students to the kind of environments they will need to operate in for the rest of their lives.

[1] https://www.theverge.com/2022/11/14/23458247/elon-musk-fires...

I think schools in the U.S. should be better given how much we are paying for them, but the "ruins kids" assertion is quite exaggerated. During covid we experimented with closing schools and offering virtual schooling, and test scores for core subjects such as reading and math fell substantially.

I do think fewer students ought to be enrolled in academic high schools.