Well put. The purpose of the US educational system is a combination of daycare, cultural assimilation, and vocational training. The top students end up going

Well put. The purpose of the US educational system is a combination of daycare, cultural assimilation, and vocational training. The top students end up going to Harvard where they get vocational training to work in the banking industry or government, the bottom students start with basic daycare until they eventually end up on welfare, in the prison system, or fighting in Iraq. This accounts for the range of people with IQs of 80-120. Generally speaking, the existing social and geographical partitions of society result in individuals from each subgroup feeling as though they "belong" in their cohort. Sometimes there are outliers... people with higher IQs or aspirations that are not vocational in nature, or simply large amounts of intellectual curiosity. These people do not fit into the system as a whole, and some are able to excel (perhaps finding a niche academic area) while others innately rebel against it and do rather poorly in school, often end up being self-taught engineers, inventors or entrepreneurs. It's crucial to realize what the intent of the US educational system is before we critique it. Considering its goal it is a tremendous success.