I come from a small (< 3000 ppl) town in northern Wisconsin. If I could find a picture, I'd post it so you could see the the silo. Yes, I said silo, like on a farm. That should tell you much. OK, so it's actually used to store wood waste from the local paper mill (used for heating), but it looks just like a farm silo sticking up in the middle of the school.
I graduated in 1982, before "honors" programs. Our most advanced Math class could have been called "A drive-by introduction to Trigonometry". You were either in "normal" classes or rode the short bus. We had two computers (TRS-80 model 3 with no floppy, and an Apple 2c) which I was allowed to play with (non of the staff had any idea what to do with them other than "Oregon Trail".
My grades were mediocre at best (I was so bored - classes proceeded at the pace of the slowest student), and have ADHD (virtually unknown around here at the time). My S.A.T score still reigns as the highest this school has produced (98 percentile) which go me into college for a semester. After earning a 0.2 GPA (only class I passed was astronomy - with a D-) I wasn't invited back.
Our only claim to fame is a guy named (appropriately) John Smart, who was a consultant to a few U.S. Presidents and help create the Peace Corp.
Heck, we don't even make cheese here anymore.
The sad thing is that an even smaller town not that far away managed to produce this guy:
http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/htmlbios/williamsj.html
My nephews go to this school now, and I can't say things have improved much. The shop programs (the only area this school did well at) have been gutted. "Honors" classes are a joke. They brag about the computer education they offer, claiming they teach "both kinds of computers", meaning Windows and Mac. I asked the teacher about Linux and got "Well, I seem to remember hearing something about that". They don't teach comp sci, ore even programming at all - just how to use MS Office (even on the Mac that's all they offer - MS Office for Mac).
I truly envy many of you younger orbinauts - you get the kind of education I would have killed for.
Then again, I can make a bow and arrows from scratch, and use them to kill my own food. I can find, track, kill, skin, tan, and butcher a variety of game and farm animals. I can knapp flint tools, find and smelt iron ore, and start a fire with a couple sticks and a shoe lace.
More importantly, I can learn things without needing the education handed to me by someone else. I haven't had my common sense "educated" into non-existence. I'm not stuck inside a worldview force-fed to me by anyone else - I'm skeptical, but ready to change my beliefs if the evidence points that way.
A good education, and good grades, are good things. I wish I had them. But my life has taught me that the ability to teach yourself, make your own decisions, and transcend your preconceptions is far more valuable in the long run.