[tourmalinetaco]

Perhaps previously, but as long as there is some minimum effort schools will rarely ever fail you. High scores are rewarded but genuine intelligence (which is a variant of the norm) is stamped out as the school system fears variance.

[consteval]

I don't think this is true. Modern schools give many different opportunities to express intelligence in novel ways. I took music theory in high school, we wrote chorales. We had robotics too, for those that wanted it.

It's true though that if you're learning math the focus is on learning math, not theorizing new branches of mathematics. The reason being that most topics are cumulative. You can't study abstract algebra if you didn't pay attention in high school algebra. In that way, they force conformance. But largely I think this is a good thing.

This sort of thing also applies to English/Language Arts. In order to comprehend more complex media, you have to be able to comprehend simple media. Often, I hear people lament about how school didn't teach them about real life. Typically, the reason why is because they didn't pay attention in English class. There's a lot there.

Also, intelligence is virtually worthless without knowledge. Intelligence just describes potential. If you don't use that potential, it's no different than if you had no intelligence at all.