There is too much emphasis on standardized testing, and testing in general. It emphasizes booksmart qualities while not really testing common sense, but to do it not to hurt students feelings is ridiculous.
There's not really whole lot of emphasis on standardized testing. Aside from book-smart topics, school does help one learn about other things. For instance, how to make complete BS look like 20 hours of work, how to write complete BS in an essay with such confidence that it fools the teacher, and scrambling to read 40 pages of a book just a few minutes before the bell rings.
In all seriousness, if one participates in school, high school in particular, to the full extent, then it can be quite educational. Balancing sports, social life, family life, homework, and stress on classes is really no difficult task, plus, mind you, social life in high school is by far tougher than adult social life (as far as I an see, granted I have no experienced both).
In my old high school, we had 6 classes per semester, in a rotating schedule of4 per day (one class every 2 out of 3 days). Here, we have 4 classes, all of them everyday. It's different, but managable. In addition to less classes, there are also EASIER classes. I kid you not, one of my assignments (well, a part of an assignment), for an HONORS language class was to underline each occupation in a short poem. In my old school we would have had to write an outline for an essay on the poem before class was over, then write the essay at home, or something to that equivalent.
Yes, I was one of those students that emails their teachers saying 'thank you' for the hard work assigned to us, because it truly did help. Moral: the harder school is, the easier life is. Let's not push this over the top, however. The object of school is to learn, and learning should be the first priority. Teenagers make mistakes, its no secret. So do teachers. All too often I hear "scratch off question 44 of the test, I messed up, sorry." And no one questions it. Yet, the sky falls when someone forgets to use correct MLA-style formatting for a bibliography. If teachers can afford to make mistakes, they are a. being hypocritical by not being lenient on their students for making mistakes, and b. setting a terrible example for their students to follow.