Why aren’t we teaching our children:
Leadership, emotion, financial planning, economics, marketing, health, programming, risk taking, decision-making, and … mental wellness?
I’m pretty sure we can find a way to blend those things into all of that fact memorization.
Besides, if you want to know what year Abraham Lincoln was shot, you can just Google it.
The Healthy Path 
I do see some good that comes from school. First of all, I work with many families whose children learn positive socialization through interactions at school. These same kids would never learn to read or write or have access to computers if not for school.
But I also believe that the concept of teaching has become a lesson in conformity, and it’s those who do not conform to school norms that are most likely to quit school. They are not stupid kids; on the contrary, some are quite intelligent.
But since our society is based on how well we comply with the requirements of the education system, and education is mandatory, our laws set up a certain percentage of children up for failure.
Well said RumpyDog. I wish they would teach non-conformity. It is possible to do that without getting expelled. I’ve had a few teachers (very few out of the total #) who encouraged it.