Random thoughts:
" Most teachers don't know they're a part of retarding the children."

There are a few very good teachers and a great number of poor to downright terrible ones. When I, as a behavioral therapist, had to point out that a six year old girl with "behavioral"   problems might not be challenged adequately in the classroom - the principal, classroom teacher and special ed teacher looked dumbfounded. "Gee maybe we need to talk to the gifted teacher..." This child could read upside down (as well as right side up) and was bored out of her gourd in the classroom. Her behavior improved when the school - and parents - made an effort.

I found that schools with excellent principals had better teachers and the children had access to the special services they needed. Teachers need to be at least as intelligent as the children they are purporting to "teach". Many are not.

The cost per student in most public schools is higher than tuition at a good private school.
This is probably due to the overabundance of "administrators" who manage to do an incredibly poor job at each level of the "system".

On the first day of a graduate course, "The Sociology of Education", the first question was "What is the purpose of the school system?" To socialize the children into the culture in which they live. If they learn to think, they are not being socialized. A shame that some kids just know how to think and no lousy school system can beat it out of them! Thankfully.

Post-doctoral research by Eigel Petersen, in the 1970s, indicated that many children are not physiologically ready to read until the age of nine. We set those kids up for failure in Kindergarten. "I can't read; there must be something wrong with me." Waldorf schools do not start to teach reading until grade 2. Steiner had more smarts a hundred years ago than most so-called "educators" of today.

Other research indicated the importance of the first school experience and its - tested and documented - effect on the IQ and the ability of a child to learn in the long term. A negative Kindergarten teacher can cause students to retain negative attitudes toward school and learning for years after. Not so strange when we consider recent learning about the influence of the outer world on infants still in utero.

If I were raising young children today, I would be very careful about finding an appropriate learning situation for each according to their own individual needs, including the possibility of home learning. I recently had occasion to thank my 50 year old son's Kindergarten teacher for the great start she gave him at the famous Charlestown Play House. She went on to get a doctorate and teach prospective teachers so there might be some good ones out there. Thank you, Miss Joan!