© Lloyd

Modern U.S. education is said to have started in Prussia, when it was found that non-compulsory education did not produce patriotic citizens who would fight for their country. It's designed to brainwash kids to support authoritarain, aggressive governments. That's the model that it is said Horace Mann thought the U.S. needed. So it was adopted here and the U.S. has steadily declined ever since.

Yes, Compulsion negates Education. Short-term memorization is not education. Only about 20% of students are good at short-term memorization, but even they learn almost nothing long-term. Learning requires fun and personal interest. All compulsory authoritarian training does is teach students how to obey orders and not ask serious questions.

Conventional testing does not properly evaluate knowledge and does not improve learning. It tends to stifle learning instead. Over 90% of students are capable of superior learning, but few achieve near their potential, because of authoritarian compulsion and boredom. Modern schooling is in reality imprisonment, which is not an ideal environment for productive learning.