#2 bothered me so much in school. The system gauges success via tests that check short term learning. It really, really isn't good at measuring learning.
I always did very well on tests at school, but I wasn't really learning anything, or more precisely, I wasn't learning how to learn. I was learning how to pass tests, but that's a rather useless skill to have. I had to learn learning as an adult, and it was more difficult than if I had to learn it as a child.
Hey man, that really sucks, and I'm sorry to hear it. I have a bunch of follow-up questions I'm curious about. I know HN isn't the best way to track replies. I've got heymijo.hn at gmail set up if you want to shoot me an e-mail.
I've worked in both K-12 and post-secondary education, studied the history of education reform in the United States, and visited schools/met teachers/students/etc that I've connected with across the U.S.
I'm always interested in hearing someone's story about school, how it did/didn't meet their needs, and how it has impacted them.