I get completely confused by these individualistic attitudes. Are they really that widespread in America? “Ready? Ready for what? Ready to make something of themselves." So it is for their own sake? I am more used to attitudes that education is not ultimately about something for the benefit of the student, but more like something for the benefit of a society, of a nation, to form people who serve it well, who contribute well to it, who are, if I want to put it brutally, useful assets of the state, or less brutally, contributing members of society. So I am more used to explanations like "you must learn this in order to fulfill your social duties better" than explanations like "it gives you a leg up".

But the funny part is that in both cases they essentially teach the same things! All these individualistic leg-up schools still don't teach personal finance and my social-duty schools don't or hardly teach ethics or first aid or basic military stuff.