So, I went to a rather competitive college-preparatory military school for 12 years, right, and one of the things I have had the hardest time dealing with in my public-university career is how much people just don't care about your education. Now, tenured professors who don't care if you show up and just keep on teachin' because shit, son, they already got paid - that is a different story, but when people are looking for the easiest passing grade or a degree they're never going to actually use, just to have it, and professors care more about their mandatory attendance policy than whether or not the book they chose is actually a good source, it gets... depressing. One of the things I miss about high school is how competitive we all were to be the best in the class: some people were better at maths, some better at writing, yeah, so it was usually confined to each individual course, but there was always that pressure to do well. Sure, there was that kid who made a deal with Georgia Tech to take maths courses because he finished the highest level the high school offered in 9th grade, and there was the guy who got a scholarship for writing a book at 16, but we pretty much accepted that everyone was exceptional in their own way, so it wasn't discouraging when certain people left us so far behind. We still managed to make each other ashamed of failing.
I think I miss that peer pressure, guys, and I dunno what to do about that. Public school sucks.