I think you are generally right. I used to teach physics at the university (and do research). The actual, practical use of anything you learn at school is clos

I think you are generally right. I used to teach physics at the university (and do research). The actual, practical use of anything you learn at school is close to zero. There are a few life-sustaining topics that should be addressed (of my head: what is electrical power and current (to be safe and understand your bills), percentages, some biology (reproduction, and generally - human body), geography (rather detailed for your own country, tahns more and more general), etc.) The problem is that many of these topics require at least a basic introduction that is not directly useful, but necessary to understand the rest. You also need to account for the maturity of the student, and would like to start early. All this means that by 15 you should have everything you need to be ready for everyday life. I guess 16 is an average age until which education is compulsory by law. Unfortunately the education provided by then is not they useful, per your (again - reasonable) criteria. The main obstacle I see is that except for a few brilliant students, you have a lot who start late. They are medium to say the least until 16 and then suddenly take off. A 14 yo doe snot have an idea about what to do later (and despite this we force them to make choices at 14 in France). So overall al lot of things could be improved, but that would mean fundamentally altering the way school works (everyone is equal and gets the same education)