Point taken. If I say your experience is the exception that proves the rule, though, I don't think that's too far off. I had a similar experience until midway

Point taken. If I say your experience is the exception that proves the rule, though, I don't think that's too far off. I had a similar experience until midway through high school. I was about three years ahead of my peers in math, due to the efforts of one particular instructor who encouraged me to get ahead and stay ahead. After my ninth grade, he moved to another school. About the same time, my high school ran out of courses. I ended up taking throw-aways instead of vector calculus, differential equations, combinatorics, etc. for three years. I wonder if the push towards one-size-fits-all standardized testing has eliminated the possibility of making active learning official, at least in the public schools. Overworked teachers don't have the time to dumb it down and smart it up at the same time, whether the kids could handle it or not. There's a lot of generalizing here, sure, but I think the basic outline is true. Even my MS seminars were more teacher-directed than self-directed. Maybe I have a knack for choosing the wrong learning situations.