[BobbyJo]

> The, "if you get left behind, that's on you, because we're not holding up the bright kids," mentality was catastrophic for me

Your one bad year doesn't invalidate the fact that it was good to allow you to run ahead of slower students the other 9 years. It wasn't catastrophic for you, as you say yourself you just retook the class in college and got a high grade. I honestly don't see how "I had a bad time at home for a year and did bad in school" could have worked out any better for you.

> So, I don't buy that America/Sweden/et al. are full of hopeless demi-students. I was deemed one.

A bad grade one year deemed you a hopeless demi student? By what metric? I had a similar school career (AP/IB with As and Bs) and got a D that should have been an F my senior year and it was fine.

[pjjpo]

They seem to lament ending up in humanities instead of a technical path. The fact that the humanities is just categorized as for less smart people and technical people are all smart is a problem in itself.

Many bright people end up in humanities and end up crushed by the societal pressure that expects them to be inferior, a huge waste.