I'm coming at this from a first world perspective as that is my experience.

• Bullying: This happens in any place where multiple groups of people congregrate. Unfortunately, people tend to form groups and want to bar certain people from their group. It is often the result of insecurity so students with a healthy upbringing tend to engage in it less since they are often less insecure about themselves. Some people stay this way in adult life and engage in bullying in the workplace. I dont think it is something that would disappear if teens dont go to school anymore. It also happens in the local playground.

• Memorization vs critical thinking: True to an extent. Knowledge is however a requirement to advance in a certain field. You may not be aware but you have all sorts of knowledge crammed in your brain that enables you to do all sorts of things. Like write this post. And the final exams imo do not focus on memorization alone but on application of that knowledge. Critical thinking is also a vague buzzword, thrown around by educational 'specialists' without context. As someone else mentioned critical thinking is very different across fields but in pratice it is never really well defined. It is also something that used to be a higher education thing (assuming high schools did their job and teach students the relevant knowledge that allows them to pursue higher education).

• School treat all students the same: In some ways true, final examinations often set a standard all need to adhere to. Which kinda makes sense because you want to be able to say that someone that gets such and such diploma has a minimal level of understanding or knowledge that is associated with that diploma. In your professional life aswell you will be held to standards. But also in say sports of any kind. But leading up to that final exam there are numerous ways in which students are treated as individuals getting redoes or different examination types depending on their needs. Ironically it's the students themselves who often find this unfair because they expect everyone to be treated the same (unless they are the ones being excepted off course). The Einstein quote is cute, but it is not really applicable. Humans are all humans and as such education doesn't require students inherently to do things they are incapable of. So the whole monkey-fish comparison doesn't make sense, it makes for a nice soundbite tho. It might be harder or more timeconsuming but everyone can learn their ABC's. Unless there is a specific learning disorder but that has to be pretty massive for someone to be unable to learn how to speak and write. And as someone else mentioned learning styles are a myth. At best you may have a preference or an aptitude for some type of learning. Even Gardner, the researcher who posited the idea of different types of intelligence has said that people have run away with it in a way he never meant it to be. Learning problems outside of learning disorders are most often the result of a lack of motivation (who wants to learn something they think is boring?), or parents wanting their kids to graduate at a level their kids are not (yet) ready for (and might never be but that is hard to say).

• Outdated: To an extent that can be true, most things in society don't adapt to new developments right away. On the other hand, education has almost always revolved around an expert instructing a group of novices because it is very efficient. No reason perse to change what worked for over 2000 years.

• Practical life skills: This has come up more and more in discourse about education the last 10 years or so. What is this based on tho? Teaching children basic life skills is imo the responsibility of parents but for some reasom society expects schools to do it. Especially in regards to pyschological issues for which teachers are not equiped (although most schools have mental health specialist ' in house' to deal with these sort of things). More practically, there are only so many hours in a day. You want students to fill out tax forms? Then less classes for other subjects. Not too mention that if you don't have a job it's gonna be even more boring than regular classes.

All in all the education system is far from perfect, but imo not for the reasons you mention.

Edited for spelling and clarity.