Yes, the education system has many weaknesses. There should be alternatives to it, so that people with the inclination to find their own answers to questions can send their children there, where it is less about memorisation and more about being able to live out human curiosity and flexibility. I think it started way before the Prussians, probably with the beginning of the division of labour and specialisation of certain professions. Probably the children of farmers were "spared" education the longest. Or everywhere, such as in the crafts, they could watch the adults at work. I myself remember best the things where I could put my own hand to what I was learning. By trying things out for myself and reproducing certain hand movements or even thinking about how to do something beforehand. But the biggest prerequisite for learning something was having fun. Without having fun, I learned little or nothing.
It has to be said that with the system we have today, we are lucky that we have not forgotten how to ask questions. Not because of school, but in spite of it.
Obeying authority is the stupidest and worst thing you can train people to do. On the contrary, a good teacher learns through his pupils. Namely through their questions, which often show an open-minded spirit through their simplicity. Which, unfortunately, is driven out of most children. At least in my school we had rooms full of microscopes, huge workshops, a large kitchen, a very spacious art room and a theatre that was really worth seeing. We had countless materials for handicrafts, art work and also biology and chemistry lessons. If the teachers had been better, we really would have had a great student life. There is none of that at my son's current school. Nothing at all. Just cheap classes with cheap furniture, no real facilities anymore. Just dull theory. Pathetic schoolyards and filthy toilets. It's really appalling how we treat our children.
Exactly. When people talk about solving the problems of the world. To me that is the first place we should start if we were serious about doing it.