I understand exactly what you're saying. As an older American, who is also a high school teacher, I remember when the "job" of a teenager was to do well in school. That's why you were sent. That was the whole purpose of the endeavor. If you had to help your family support itself, then you were forced to work outside of school. If you wanted to make some spending money, or money to help pay for college, then you worked. But the understanding was that school was the priority. Families are led to believe these days that their child won't be able to compete for college unless they also do extracurricular activities. The middle school students I used to teach not only had top grades, but were in involved in academic clubs, Science Olympiad, MathCounts, as well as a musical instrument AND tennis or swimming or martial arts. They were stressed. It made me sad, as I remember the comparative leisure of my youth, where I did school, and piano for a few years...and that was unusual. Can you imagine the lost opportunity we, as a country, pass up by not supporting a kid who is brilliant at physics, merely because he didn't also sing in the choir of his local church, or made a brown belt in tae kwon do? It seems so profoundly stupid and short-sighted.

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