> Americans only want what’s “practical” now.

Funny that this exact same sentence was uttered countless times when I was in China twenty years ago. Back then the Chinese education system was criticized for belittling literature and arts while emphasizing math, physics, and chemistry, because allegedly only the latter produced material contributions to the society. I remember back then, American education system was touted as the best one could achieve in the world, where students thrived on whatever they were interested in, and consequently innovation popped up left and right.

Twenty years later, I am seeing that the US education system is plagued by the same practicality problem.

That said, what worries me more is the anti-intellect trend. It is much scarier when people with zero knowledge have access to microphones and blast bullshit to millions of followers. We are living in this world right now. Very soon, people will start chanting "education is useless", "education is to serve the elite", etc (ahh, how familiar these slogans, a staple in the Culture Revolution in China in the 1960s and 70s). I'd rather no one learns literature and arts and everyone becomes an engineer than illiterate zealots running the world (wait, you are saying this has already happened?).