I mostly agree — I figured out who I really wanted to be and what I really wanted to do when I was 40. But most people have some sense of whether they are leaning more towards STEM or Liberal Arts long before that. Not everyone, to be sure, but there was never any questions in my mind that I would ever need or use any of that stuff ever, ever again…. and I haven’t, even though I didn’t know exactly what I was going to end up as.

There’s a lot to be said for being able to mostly pursue what interests you after basic skills like reading and writing are established. My son didn’t learn to tell time (on an analogue clock) until he was 12, but then he essentially taught himself/it just made sense to him. And I still contend that fundamental civics and how to be an adult would be far more useful than some of the stuff they teach in schools today.