Thank you everyone for your replies. This is exactly what I was hoping for.
I would like to mention that at NO point did I place any more blame on the teachers than I did on any other member of society. The vast majority of teachers are good people doing a hard and very often thankless job.
I am basing my growing belief on observations based in a very liberal, relatively high socioeconomic bracket area.
I was talking about conventional public brick and mortar schools vs non-traditional school options (charter, IS, homeschool). Although I know a few people with children in private schools, I don't really know them well enough to have any idea what the schools are like.
Charter schools often have lower rankings (in my area) because most of the students opt out of testing. However, the students who do test tend to blow the lids of the tests. I've also been told by teachers with experience in the area that non-traditional school students often over think the tests unless they are trained in proper test taking skills.
I also never said that some or even most kids don't enjoy traditional school. Even the kid I know who is most affected by the system LOVES school, not because he is learning but because he is in the same room as his friends. In fact he would rather stay with his friends than switch to a school that might support his learning style. He isn't there to learn you see and he's only in 3rd grade. However, due to lack of a better example coming to mind at the moment, I read an article the other day about modern slavery and how the salves are "happy" and don't want to be freed because that is the way it has always been...
If we want creative thinkers something has to change. The universities are speaking out about it. What is going on in the majority of schools isn't working or it wouldn't be an issue for the universities. I'm not saying we should toss traditional schools (bad idea on SO many levels), but that people have to stand up and say that kids need to be kids. They need to move, to be engaged in an environment that doesn't cause them to shut down, to be allowed to play even as they get into the higher grades. Exercise boosts test scores. Creativity boosts innovation.
