(Disclaimer: I'm not american and english is not my first language, and I'm not in-school or a teenager either)

I simply do not for life of me understand why the school experience is designed the way it is. At least for me, it's very rare to find someone who genuinely liked school, most people I know are either openly resentful or like the happy memories they formed in school (friendships, a time without adult responsabilities, etc.) but not the school enviroment / system. It never ceases to amaze me how so many people feel miserable about something and still nothing changes.

For starters, as juvenile or tired this argument may sound, the bulk of the school curriculum is simply not important for daily life. The only things that I think are essential for everyone is reading and writing to the best level possible in your native language (not just basic literacy) and basic mathematical skills (basically math all the way to algebra 1). Everything else, it's only useful if go to specific fields as an adult, and otherwise it's useless except at maybe a superficial level. And even the important stuff does not come up in life the same way it does in school (for example you won't be forced to read the classics as an adult, and most adults when doing important calcs just use calculators).Case in point, I'm currently finishing Medical College, the only things that carried over from school were biology (and even then, some stuff, like botanics, were still useless for me) and some chemistry, I've never used physics, or humanities at anything but a very rudimentary level, never used any math more complex than simple algebra at all.

''But...that content is to make you a more well-rounded person/is weight-lifting for the brain''. Not true, most people ultimately forget A LOT of what they ''learned'' at school, in large part because is not obviously useful in their daily life. Do YOU remember everything you learned in school ? The same goes to the ''Learning to learn'' argument, most people drop the habits they developed in school, either because they were forced to develop and now aren't, or in some case out of spite.

Futhermore, everything is taught in the most un-engaging way possible. The teachers just lecture the information to you and it's your obligation to pay attention and absorve it. It doesn't need to be like that, childhood is basically the part of your life where you are most curious and easy to influence. The only reason why school is not engaging is because the educators do not want it for some reason.

And last but not least, the work. Most schools aroud the world assing homework, which is not only nonsensical for me (I'm outside of school and have the obligation to occupy myself with stuff from school?), it takes time away from things that are just as if not more important for intelectual development, such as playing for children and side-actvities for teenagers (sports, part-time jobs etc.), as well as simple leisure. Most schools in the world also constantly eveluate their students with standardized tests and grading. Not only that creates the toxic culture of teaching / studying for the test, it creates unnecessary stress on students and doesn't translate into adult life (the only tests I took apart from college was my driving test).

So basically, we get taught stuff that won't really matter, the worst way possible and are constantly evaluated on it and can even be punished for not performing well (reprimanded by parents, summer school, held back years etc.). And that is not taking into account other issues that are widespread in schools everywhere, such as bullying. So reddit, please change my view that there is really a point or benefit to this.