Trig to do surveying at 12 is the exact opposite of well rounded. On the other hand very many students today indeed have amazing breadth of knowledge from math

Trig to do surveying at 12 is the exact opposite of well rounded. On the other hand very many students today indeed have amazing breadth of knowledge from math to literature and civics (which you can see in their writing, extracurricular choices and volunteer work) - something that gets much rarer as you go in the past where students had to pick up work at age 12 to 16. Regrettably, today in the US, schools that are not in affluent areas have trouble living up to this standard.