Yup. I know many who retired from the service with 20+ years service, and are now collecting their pension while being quite successful in civilian life. Choosing a military career path with civilian application is a great way to go.

The public school debate is a dicey one. Everybody agrees that the system is broken, but nobody can agree on how to fix it. I can see some of the emphasis on learning vs testing, as the real point of school is to build the foundation for future learning. If you don't learn the content, it makes subsequent learning more difficult. On the other hand, I find the lack of accountability to be a bit disturbing. I think there's a degree of life lesson associated with having due dates, how many second chances do you get at work to turn in a project late? Plus as a society, we do a terrible job of personal accountability already. This feels a little like the "everybody is a winner" philosophy. Overall, it will be interesting to see how well it works in practice.