I think that "school" is an attempt to learn "life skills" in a "sterile" environment, where the skills are divorced from the purpose. You measure a line for the sake of measuring a line, buy you do not cut the board to length. You count dots on a page rather than chickens in a pen. You put down an answer on a test rather than living it out.
Something gets lost along the way, or so it seems to me.
At school, it doesn't matter whether you're a Cat or a Monkey; they teach you how to swim regardless.