Ingrid’s workload at school is very intense. There is a never-ending stream of test after test after test, often two or three per week. She spends several hours studying every night – and the moment she can put one test behind her, it’s time to start cramming for the next one. It’s much more stressful than adult working life – I can spend most of my days producing actual work, instead of constantly focusing on proving my value.

Even subjects like psychology and philosophy have been turned into cramming subjects. Back in my day, I took philosophy as an elective course in high school, and I remember spending most of our time in debates and discussions. Things like the trolley problem, or “a hospital is on fire and none of the patients can get out on their own, whom do you rescue first?” and so on. Whereas Ingrid, instead of discussing existentialism, gets to cram and regurgitate facts about it. How to kill all students’ interest in a fundamentally fascinating subject in three easy steps. It’s like anti-philosophy, actually.