The problems with public education are deep but that does not mean that they cannot be quickly remedied. We must, when creating curricula, ask the right questions. These are the same questions that individual teachers must address. For now, the vast majority if students are wasting their time in public schools. I do believe that in many cases no formal education beyond eighth grade would be better than attending high school if an alternate plan exists, that is.
Home schooling provides one such alternative.
Until we have greater respect for the interests and difficulties that students have - we will be at a stand still. There is a great cultural gap between a teacher who went to school fourty years ago and an eighteen year old today. It is not the student who must adjust - but the teacher, The world is changing. So must we.