Hell, I like TR, and his progressive education system has a specific purpose: putting kids in a factory environment to prepare them for work in heavy industry. It's literally the purpose of the bell system and periods. The purpose of highschool was to make sure you were ready for a job in a factory.

And, while that's got plenty of problems all on it's own, the fact that a highschool education isn't even enough to prepare you for factory work, and neither is a college education, is a massive signal to the failure of the public educational system, even to meet it's own progressive agenda.