"Interesting here that you say destroy him."
It could have been a freudian slip, I guess. I was implying that the lockstep education he hated didn't destroy his love of learning. If education is supposed to destroy or corral something, like military bootcamp does to individualism,then it needs to put something in its place like esprit de corps developed in the military. I'm not sure it does that except it seems to concentrate on socialist notions of common good over individual good, without the justification of battle exigencies which animate military training.
What education does is try to fit all pegs into preshaped holes and it tends to be painful for pegs shaped different than the hole educators have in mind. The results vary: (1) Some persons are just shaped like the peg and enjoy school. (2) Some persons are able to adapt and at least temporarily mold themselves to the hole. (3) Some adapt, seem successful but are miserable. (4) Some fight it all the way and get bitter. (5) Some fight it, survive and get along all right but with bad memories of education. I fit the second category. My husband the fifth.
I certainly don't mean to imply that educators set out to destroy people. It's a byproduct of one-size-fits-all education.
My own story is similar to your husband's. I was terrible in high school and hated the school, teachers and the kids. I was small for my age and I got picked on all the time so I understand the current obsession with bullying.
I graduated but just barely making the graduation list in 1965. After HS I went in the Army and did very well and made the max in rank, pay and awards. When I got out of the Army serving in Vietnam from 1966 to 1969 I worked for 3 years. At the ripe age of 25 married and with a career going nowhere I started college against my will.
I graduated going full-time in 3 years on the GI Bill and began a career in the computer industry in 1976.
As you point out that there are pegs that fit and in the Army I fit pretty well.
If I were to be in high school today I'd need prozac or some other drug. I need a lot of structure in my life and without dicipline I fall apart. The kids today who are like me will fail. That is why I feel so strongly about this subject. The system doesn't work for people like me.