This thread on bad education reminded me of some of the amazingly positive things we experienced in school as well.
My high school in particular had an amazing team-taught Western Civ program for freshmen; it was coordinated History and English sections, so that you’d be studying, say, Renaissance history at the same time you were reading the literature and listening to the music and learning about the visual arts of the period. I wish I’d had something analogous in college.
One film that we saw in that class, though, was both hilarious and extremely thought-provoking, and it’s stuck in my mind ever since. Does anyone else remember Why Man Creates? I’d love to find a copy; one bit in particular discusses a famous JFK speech, in which he says the U.S. will “pay any price” to ensure liberty. The film’s question: what does “pay any price” mean in real-life terms? It still sticks in my mind.