Amen. I look back on high school and sometimes think that I could have gotten more out of it. I went to a very well funded, suburban school that offered a lot of interesting classes. Not too bad in retrospect. However, I almost failed out, and skipped as much as I could, while doing the most drugs I could get my hands on. This was a direct result of feeling like an inmate, always told where to go, what to do, when to take a piss, even. I was once suspended for trying to hold a teacher's hand, because I was trying to point out to him that he treated me like a 5 year old. It's not right. There shouldn't be an adversarial relationship between the leaders and the led at schools, but I don't see how to fix it. If I have kids, I'll put them in a progressive style private school. Public education should have a lot to offer, but the current model, which is only getting worse with all the new legislation that's been passed in the preceding decade, is an abject failure.