You know, I had access to the same mediocre english lessons as the rest of my buddies (the lessons have to be mediocre so that everyone has a chance to pass). I walked out of high school speaking relatively good english. I needed to practice obviously, and that didn't come until years later, but, essentially, that's it.
When I talk w/ people back home, 95% of them can't speak english to save their life. Same lessons, same teachers.
Difference I guess is that I was obsessed with music and wanted to understand the lyrics, so I had an extra motivation. But my resources were the same as theirs. Outside of that, nothing. We didn't even have an english dictionary at home, my parents couldn't understand english, we didn't have cable/english tv...
So, anyway, most of those people I went to school with can't speak english.
Many will also tell you just how much they hated math and can't remember any of that stuff - not even to work with fractions.
A lot of them can't spell better than a 5th grade kid.
They know that Europeans came to America at some point and fought Indians.
If they try really hard they probably remember the name of 4 or 5 Canadian Prime Minister, beside the current one.
Art and music classes were just an excuse for them to waste time.
Many think that Africa is a country, because geography was BOOOOOOOORING...
So we have all those people w/ diplomas, and you can't help but wonder - what the heck did they learn in all those years?
But the worst part is that, it gives people a sense of entitlement because they've been told that they are "educated" when actually, all the knowledge they've managed to extract from all those years boils down to how to make carrot muffins or how to build a bird house.