[c7DJTLrn]

I think it's broken, but for other reasons. In the UK at least, secondary school exams are overwhelmingly about memorisation and prediction of what questions there will be rather than applying logical or investigative thinking. There's very little practical work, you sit in a chair and listen to the teacher or things on the whiteboard most of the time. Also, there's a majority feminine influence in education. All of these factors lead to me believe that education simply does not cater to males, and soaring grades of girls confirms this. In the UK, white males have been the poorest performing demographic on exams for the past decade. But nobody wants to talk about it interestingly.

I was fortunate to get an apprenticeship at the age of 16, which enabled me to get into the real world of work and build experience years ahead of everyone else. It's a completed overlooked path - most students still think they need a degree to get a good job.

[kwhitefoot]

> secondary school exams are overwhelmingly about memorisation

That's depressing. It was starting to move away from that when I did my physics and chemistry A-levels in 1974, had been for some years in fact with Nuffield courses emphasizing exploration and comprehension rather than simply getting the 'right' answer. The Physics A-level had a substantial section that tested the student's ability to understand the results of experiments.