I have noticed something, also. When you were small and you saw your dad come home from work, you would just think he'd work. You wouldn't ask him what he knew about his job and how to handle it. Since, you wouldn't know about all the crap your forced to learn just to get there. So in America, you don't see any hardships to buy stuff, most drop outs are from middle class familys. They can sustain what they want, knowing their not rich. Middle class can go down to people that don't have jobs that seem so complicated. Therefor, by the time your older, you might think your learning this junk all for nothing. At least, I know some people that think that way.
Also, nowadays in highschool, upper level courses and AP courses raise the # of your GPA, Or GPR. Therefor, if you have a ratio of 7. [Some freakishly divine way. I would think it'd be rather hard to have straight A's all through year in AP classes.] But its possible, and with that, those students are pushed. But now all these expectations are being thrown about. In Texas, this year is the year Eight graders MUST pass the TAKS test in Reading and Math. I got a chance to look at the test. It turned out it was easy, the stupidest person I know could have passed. So it turns out, theres no real "Government pushing as hard as possible".
I also heard STROP saying that world wide grades and averages were low in the US. Your right. I mean, my cousins education is considered crap, but they know a freaking JUNK load. They get summer-vacation homework, Algebra they started in 7th grade. [Algebra, not Pre algebra]. Its rather scary. xP
But, now that the education system is so weak, rushing it up to a level of greatness would be hard.
