No, I've never taught a class, so it's possible that the experience of teaching as a professor would irrevocably change my opinion. However, I have spent a lot

No, I've never taught a class, so it's possible that the experience of teaching as a professor would irrevocably change my opinion. However, I have spent a lot of time tutoring math and directing bands and choirs, so I'm familiar with the frustration that comes from explaining concepts and then assigning necessary work with plenty of time to do it and then having people still show up unprepared. I believe that there is a negative feedback loop in the current model of schooling: unprepared students produce jaded instructors produce unprepared students. The big problem with the current lecture method is that any interruption of the momentum of the course for the students' own personal benefit comes with a social cost, so it's better to just shut up and pretend you know what's going on. Furthermore, many lectures build on themselves, so if you misunderstand a concept at minute 3, by minute 20 you're checked out and by minute 50 you're clock-watching. That's why so many math lectures are silent with the exception of the occasional interjection from a star student. Combine this with the fact that most students are insufficiently prepared for course material in the first place and you end up with modern STEM college: kids who don't get the material slogging through piles of completion-based assignments and exams and putting in the minimum amount of work to get the degree, after which most get the exact same job they'd have gotten if they'd worked harder anyway. They're almost incentivized against deep examination of any one topic, because all time spent working on one assignment incurs a cost against other assignments, or against leisure. There are so many issues with the way education works at scale in the first world that going down any pathway would take a thousand words, so I'll sum up by saying that I believe that you have a point, and I also believe that the majority of undergraduates are underprepared, entitled, have underdeveloped work ethics, and lack both the discipline and drive necessary to really get something out of their education. However, I still think that the extreme burn-out classes cause more detriments to higher education than they bring as a whole.