That's not necessarily a bad thing. I've always been rather fond of pg's quote which says something to the effect that "if I had to choose between bad high schools and good universities, like the US, and good high schools and bad universities, like most other industrialized countries, I'd take the US system. Better to make everyone feel like a late bloomer than a failed child prodigy."
I'm pretty sure our children will be talking about how pg was thoroughly proven wrong in this. What percentage of americans go to college? pg's quote seems to assume most will but I suspect it's the exact opposite. This means you are getting a small percentage of "late bloomers" and a lot of people who's only education was appallingly bad. Your late bloomers aren't going to do you much good when the majority of all people who vote are ignorant.
