Totally agree with Saturday on both counts. I'm a former community college and state college history instructor (and public school history teacher too). I despise the textbooks too. They're obsolete and inefficient way to learn today. They're watered down to a ridiculous level. I think the high school history textbooks are aimed at a 4th/5th reading level where I taught.
Remedial classes are a scam; higher education boils down to profits.
There are so many problems with education today. We're still stuck in paper mode when we live in a digital world that is constantly changing and evolving. Schools are primarily stuck on auditory teaching methods. Many teachers cling to the textbook or to tests and have a fixed mindset on teaching. I could go on and on.
I think this is perhaps one of the reasons why the homeschool/unschool movement is growing so much. With a more individualized, self-directed approach to learning, a child is able to make more decisions for themselves, follow their interests, and become more self-aware of their potential and abilities. Yes, a child may to this in a formal, traditional educational setting, but it's more challenging with digital content and technology becoming more relevant in our lives.
Formal, traditional educational settings do not always encourage or foster independent or divergent thinking by their nature. Some teacher do, but many do not. It's Russian Roulette. I think most children learn (and I think are conditioned) not to question the teacher or textbook; remember you get detention or insubordination in school. Yet independent, critical thinking or divergent thinking is increasingly needed in a digital world. So this is a complex issue.
