Here is another thought that may reboot OPs brain - not all schools in the world use Mercator projection for teaching. In my country we have used Robinson's pro

Here is another thought that may reboot OPs brain - not all schools in the world use Mercator projection for teaching. In my country we have used Robinson's projections if I remember correctly. Also students usually have no need for navigation precise projections, instead they need something that can be reasonably used for all countries of the globe and for the globe itself.