[IAmBroom]

You are, I think, blinded by the fact that you were a HS teacher. Primary grade teachers teach principle societal objects by rote and practice, not by encouraging students to "go discover the alphabet on their own". Middle-school takes it up a notch, and maybe by (USA) junior high school students' brains are ready for learning how to learn, but for me it wasn't until I reached HS that a teacher ever challenged me to interpret the "facts" I was presented with in a novel, personal way - to use my skillset to understand the facts, discern facts from propaganda or beliefs, and so on.