Did the public school system fail me?

I didn't used to think so.

For the longest time, I took comments about the failure of the public school system with a grain of salt. "You get out of it what you put into it" I always thought. Aside from problems later in high school, I managed to learn just fine. Of course, I'm smart.

Recently I was talking to my sister, and she mentioned something I didn't know about my childhood. K through 3rd grade I was at a private school, and I never knew why we switched to a public school. Apparently it was because I was not doing my homework, and the teachers didn't care because I aced all the tests, and clearly knew the subject matter.

At first I was annoyed that they cared about homework when I would obviously know the subject matter, but then I wondered if they wanted me to do the homework to prepare me for the doldrums of working life. Later in my school career, homework became a problem for me. Not because I couldn't do it; but because I could do it.

Homework (at least in my school career) was busy work. Always. We'd learn a new topic, go over it in class, then be assigned homework to practice it until we understood it. I always understood it. The homework would be dumb repetition for the first section, then the last few problems would usually add a wrinkle to it. So I would just do the last section, understand the loops that I might be thrown, and then ace the test.

My teachers didn't care for this because it seemed to undermine their teaching style. How could I possibly learn without doing the homework? I must be cheating. They'd sit me in the corner for tests, and comment on how "lucky" I was "this time" when I got an A.

My minor annoyance with homework became a total wash when it got to showing my work. I remember arguing with teacher after teacher that I didn't have to show my work because I could do it in my head. At first they would argue that I couldn't do it in my head, and after a few demonstrations, they'd argue that I could have just copied the answers from someone else. Of course, my offer to do the homework again in front of them was always turned down.

"You have to show your work, otherwise I'm going to give you zeros for cheating."
"Why?"
"Because you can't do these in your head."
"Give me another assignment right now, and I'll do it in front of you."
"That's not the point."
"You just said that it is the point. You said you think I'm cheating because I'm not showing work. I'm saying I can prove to you that I'm not cheating. What's the problem?"
"You just have to show your work."
"Why?"
"To show you understand the material."
"How could I not understand the material if I'm offering to do it right now?!"
"If you raise your voice to me again, you'll be going to the vice principal's office!"
"Alright, I'm sorry. I'm just trying to understand why you even want me to do this busy work."
"To prove you know the material."
"But I always ace the tests! I know the material. You know I know the material. The vice principal knows I know the material. Why are you making me waste my time?"
"Homework is not a waste of time."
"But, WHY???"
"Because I say so."

There you have it. The end of my homework career.

From then on, all homework was either completed as one would pull teeth, partially completed (beginning problems to learn the topic, then last problems to learn the tricks), or ignored. Tests were still aced, and I'd happily contribute in class, but even when homework would only account for 20% of a grade, teachers would invariably resent my refusal to do homework and start marking down my tests for no homework. It all felt pointless after that.

As I thought back on all this, and remembered more each time, it occurred to me that it wasn't my fault that my homework was easy. I was part of every "gifted" program they had, but they never challenged me. (of course, now I know that the "gifted" program was adopted as an excuse for more free money that they obviously spent elsewhere, because all we did was take a test once a year) It wasn't my job to challenge myself. It was the school's job to challenge me. Instead they wanted me to conform to the lowest common denominator (which I could also do in my head), and punished me for failure to do so.

Was it really my job to challenge myself?
Should I have just conformed and done the mind-numbing busy work?
Was the busy work supposed to "prepare" me for adult life?

Meh. I'm a "no regrets" kind of guy. I did what I thought made sense. Frankly, thinking about it now, it seems to make more sense to me.