"... walked the half mile to the San Mateo County fairgrounds to join thousands of others where I discovered that my son was probably adopted"
Nope, you were probably like that when you were a kid. Unfortunately, the "look, but don't touch" mentality has been thought relentlessly to children for the past N years. In some cultures kids, after a certain age, say, 10, are supposed to be totally focused on studying so that they get to a good school, so none of that tinkering stuff. Unless, of course you wanted to belong with the grimy, poor souls who had to work with their hands, e.g. the young boys who were taken out of school and given as an apprentice (my mom made an argument similar to this when I was studying for the middle school entrance exams, when I was 11.)
I am inspired to return more of the wonder of learning to my science classes. Coincidentally for me, this is happening with blended learning. More time is liberated for experiments and student operated demonstrations when I let Sal Khan do some of the teaching for me.
I would take studying in quotes: "studying"
Because they do not actually earn any useful or marketable skills during those almost ten years.
My wife told me this is called academism.
There may be some pressure for this, but in most high schools in America it simply isn't needed. You can get A's and B's mostly by showing up if you are reasonably intelligent. Even getting all A's wasn't that difficult.
but getting into college isn't hard either. Unless you are shooting for Harvard it's just not. They are businesses that like to make money. They want to take your money.
Nope, you were probably like that when you were a kid. Unfortunately, the "look, but don't touch" mentality has been thought relentlessly to children for the past N years. In some cultures kids, after a certain age, say, 10, are supposed to be totally focused on studying so that they get to a good school, so none of that tinkering stuff. Unless, of course you wanted to belong with the grimy, poor souls who had to work with their hands, e.g. the young boys who were taken out of school and given as an apprentice (my mom made an argument similar to this when I was studying for the middle school entrance exams, when I was 11.)