It conditions kids to work in factories,

Okay, here is my high school list of classes:

English Trig Chemistry Physics Band Computer lab Spanish History (state, national, world) Various AP courses (calc, chem, language, literature, etc.)

I may have missed a few. Anyway, everybody took those classes. Only a small group of kids took shop, and those were kids who loved cars and everything about them. Every single public high school I've ever been to or heard about has had this kind of schedule.

So, explain to me how the fuck that "conditions kids to work in factories"? Explain how exactly those classes condition kids to not think critically?

Yes, you either go to class and try and get a good grade or fail by not going. Would you rather kids NOT be rewarded for hard work, and be rewarded for putting in no effort? Would you rather grades be abolished and have no metric for measuring how well you're understanding something? How on Earth would a math class without grading work? How is the teacher supposed to know who needs help with what?

Riddle me this, too: you want kids aged 14-18 to "choose their own path". Did you know exactly what you wanted to do at 14? Are you aware that a normal high school schedule IS chosen, especially at the end? If you did know what you wanted to do, congrats - you're part of a very select group. Would you rather kids be able to choose to never learn certain subjects and remain totally ignorant of them?

Tell me: what is the ideal system to you?