[kevinmershon]

Exactly. It seems like so many people fall into the logical trap that school is about getting you to permanently memorize facts that, in a typical adult life, end up being largely trivia.

School is about teaching your brain how to retain information in general, so you can retain what you need to use.

[Finnucane]

My brain is pudding. Also, 8th-grade me learned stuff that wasn't even known in 1912. What needs to be learned changes over time.

[setopt]

Exactly. How well would a 1912 student do on an 8th-grade test today for comparison?

They would lack any info about world wars, decolonization, computers, space race, internet, climate change, just to pick some topics taught today.

[paulpauper]

I think it's more of a filtering mechanism for people who are smart but also obedient. these people are economically valuable

[tourmalinetaco]

Perhaps previously, but as long as there is some minimum effort schools will rarely ever fail you. High scores are rewarded but genuine intelligence (which is a variant of the norm) is stamped out as the school system fears variance.

[gregjor]

Not really. Or if I take that as face value, schools fail at it.

School mainly serves as day care and social programming: obey authority, believe what we tell you, remember what will appear on the test. Some people get more out of it than others.

[michaelt]

Believe me, politicians also want citizens to get higher paying jobs, so they can pay more taxes.

If you've got a system that can reliably take a citizen earning $40,000/year and turn them into a citizen earning $140,000/year, governments from all over the world will beat down a path to your door. Over a 40 year career that's an extra $4 million in taxable income.