Actually, I never had much use for school after the Navy, except to find another avenue for work prospects. I was always so bored with K-12 that I seldom did homework, but I managed to absorb enough to get high grades on all my tests, so I ended up with a fairly good grade in most classes. That tended to frustrate my teachers quite a bit, but I was never a trouble in class, so I got by. The last couple years in high school finally got a little interesting with higher level math and science (advanced chem, physics, and trig), and I could finally see some application in what they were teaching. It was actually a challenge, and I began to learn how to learn then, if that makes any sense. In the Navy, I finally found a place where I could push my limits, and discovered that it was possible to achieve the highest possible grade in class if I really wanted to. In college, it was more a matter of economics that drove me; having the highest grade secured me a scholarship and an internship, both of which I needed at the time. I never completed college, but for the year and a half I was there, I learned "the system", which parlays academics into job skills, and thereby secured my future career paths.

From a practical view, I would estimate that you can learn about 10% of what you need to know to do something while in school, the rest you learn OJT, which is where the vast majority of my working knowledge has been derived. That 10% is enough to get you familiar with the subject matter so that you can converse with those in your field enough to learn what you really need to know. Beyond that, school was more a social program than anything. At least that's my experience.

Now my girls are in it, and are learning how to learn, and more importantly how their world will function around them as they move from academia to career. My oldest one initially wanted to be a marine mammal vet, which was unlikely given she was not a straight A student growing up. Even had she made it, her visions of swimming in the tank with Shamu were not practical, and when told that more likely her Phd would entitle her to shoveling fish guts and whale poop for $30k a year if she was lucky, she soon lost interest. It is important for kids to have realistic goals, and understand that glamour usually only comes with fame.