Access to a dictionary or thesaurus, or the dozens of mathematical axioms and theorems were were expected to know intrinsically might have helped.
In retrospect despite the well-meaning intent of some of my teachers, the institution of the unified school district of my childhood acted in bad faith. It was interested in the containment of children. It allowed for abuse. It taught false propaganda as truth and fact. It deserved far more mischief and resistance than it received from my class.
And schools in the states have gotten only worse, not better.
Without an uncompromised educational system it is up to our youth to teach themselves, to recognize for themselves they’re being molded and constrained to serve as interchangeable, disposable laborers and solders within vanity projects of plutocratic billionaires, in a society that is not yet working towards sustainability through their lifetime.