I was the kid she’s describing. During freshman year the obvious conclusion occurred to me that school wasn't worth the effort. My teachers were nice people with warm platitudes, but they were also consumer-nihilists who had no clue. In English we read literature written for girls and in history we learned all about the evils committed by our ancestors. Class was mostly an exercise in rule-following and boredom management. The only reasonable response was to check out. Only later did I discover, to my shock, that I liked good books, and that there were things worth pursuing, studying, knowing. So in my case (and I'm guessing I'm not alone), public schooling prevented the development of a love of learning.