I agree too, and if it's your religion telling you that a baby is a born sinner or it's repressing you and making you feel guilty about everything, get a new religion. I won't argue whether you need one or not but if you're going to have one, it should enrich your life.
For a good job today, a worker has to be a thinker.
Yes, you can exchange your religion for a "better" one - after all this shit has been hammered into your developing brain for many years by well meaning parents or authority figures whom you trusted and did not know better themselves. The damage is already done psychologically, even if you should discover one day that all this was nothing but dangerous brain wash to create obedient slaves.
I'd encourage you to take a look at common core. This does not produce thinkers. It produces rule following drones who are not even allowed to think logically. I recommend this short video from Truthstream media. Our children are being dumbed down SYSTEMATICALLY AND ON PURPOSE.
As we have been.
Yes, this arithmetic was awful and "see" and "say" was ridiculous although I managed to miss it and I think it's gone from our system now. Some teaches just refused to teach it. I also have a pet peeve about elementary school math being taught by arts graduates that never liked math.
When I first heard the phrase "common core" I thought it had something to do with common curriculums between states. We had done something similar between school boards in Ontario just because people are mobile, and when you move from one area to another, the systems shouldn't be completely different.
As long as a student has an internet connection, they can learn for free from the Khan Academy and they will learn properly but they still won't pass that test.
I have a friend whose son flunked a question on a physics test because he knew too much for his schooling level. I disagreed with that too.