Having just left the US High School system, the problem is that we aren't teaching anything in high school.
As PG said in his essay "Why Nerds Are Unpopular" [1], American high schools are popularity contests. The focus is not on actually learning anything, but on keeping us confined in one room while the adults go do work.
Of course, the system is WAY too complicated for that to be the only cause. For example, another cause is apathy amongst the students. My high school senior class was 250-300 students large. My high school graduating class was about 150-200 students large. This is because ~100 students simply didn't care enough. Of the 150-200 students graduating, most went on to a community college, very few - about 50 or so, actually went to a 4 year university.
Again, that's only barely scratching the surface, but I have class to go to, and that's of a higher priority than this comment. Because caring about your education is half the battle.
As PG said in his essay "Why Nerds Are Unpopular" [1], American high schools are popularity contests. The focus is not on actually learning anything, but on keeping us confined in one room while the adults go do work.
Of course, the system is WAY too complicated for that to be the only cause. For example, another cause is apathy amongst the students. My high school senior class was 250-300 students large. My high school graduating class was about 150-200 students large. This is because ~100 students simply didn't care enough. Of the 150-200 students graduating, most went on to a community college, very few - about 50 or so, actually went to a 4 year university.
Again, that's only barely scratching the surface, but I have class to go to, and that's of a higher priority than this comment. Because caring about your education is half the battle.
[1] http://paulgraham.com/nerds.html