Unfortunately, my High School chemistry class was a total joke. The chemistry that I did learn (outside of class) was in the field of applied energetic exothermic reactions. I made fun stuff like black gunpowder, nitrocellulose, Cupric Azide, thermite, Nitrogen Tri-iodide, and basic coloring agents (such as magnesium for white and strontium for red).
Now, if the teacher had possessed some modicum of enthusiasm and/or the students were actually interested and motivated to learn (you can't just blame it on the teacher).... who knows what we could have learned?
Public school stinks because it's just a sad application of the lowest-common-denominator principle. Take the laziest and least talented person in the room (sometimes, although rarely, it's the teacher), and move the class at that person's speed.
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