A women's life in 3 pictures...

 

There are always exceptions to the rule, that doesn't mean the rules don't need to exist.

To your point, there are people that can excel and learn on their own but that is not the norm. There are many people that need to be motivated/helped in the learning process. I include myself in that group and I have a Mechanical Engineering degree from a top 20 school and was in the top 10% of my class. Self driven learning is not the most effective way to learn if you want lift up the whole society. There will always be successful exceptions, good for them. In general, being taught is a better/faster/more efficient way to learn than picking up a book and figuring it out on your own. If that wasn't the case we wouldn't need teachers. Teachers are the foundation of learning, a poor foundation can ruin the whole house, the same is true in education. As a result, teachers need to be qualified, certified and monitored. I'm against the tenure bs. In addition, schools should be certified and monitored to see that they are providing value. This is squarely the governments jurisdiction, not the populaces. When this doesn't happen the populace suffers as described in previous posts. I find it interesting that even in republics the rich minority always seem to be able to control the poor majority. Having poor education systems helps with that.

 

Husband and wife were at a party.
The wife said to her husband....Aren't you embarrassed, that's the fourth time you have asked for cake and cream.
Not really he replied, I tell them it's for you!

 

Should I have listened?

 

When you see one thing, BUT.... It's ANOTHER....