On education

Why exactly and in what way is the modern educational system flawed, from primary school to university? Does it really kill creativity, or is that a liberal meme?

What would an ideal education be like?

It's getting too soft and it's run by people who care more about their kid's 'feelings' than education.

How is it flawed?

It inculcates skill and provides the necessary abilities to do jobs that serve society beneficially. Look at it from a utilitarian perspective. You need more doctors than painters, because artists don't cute diarrhoea.

In fact, the top schools around the world might actually help nourish creativity.

Your own intuition brought you to a completely wrong conclusion. People who score high on creativity on inventories tend to do poorly in grade school and do poorly in universities if they are in non creative fields of study. Creative people are pushed into non creative fields of study because of your mentality of "you need more doctors than painters". I mean seriously how could you think the the grade school system, which was founded to train factory workers, or the university system, which was modeled on that same factory system, could possibly nourish creativity.

We need to return to classical education

That's a false dichotomy. In the past, students had civics and music classes and it's not like we never produced doctors. We should have a curriculum that helps produce well rounded citizens, not test taking drones.

These.

The best schools out there, I see highly creative students engaged in co and extra curricular activities that encourage creativity. I see no dearth of originality either. The students who graduate from those institution work on real-world problems that necessitate creativity. And they're successful at that.

Clearly, you two are going by an anecdote. No scientific data on school killing creativity. If your, or my, school was bad, then the school needs to get better. It's not a critique of the idea of the school, it's a critique of that particular school.

That painters are not as valued as doctors is not a fault with the schools, it's not even a fault in fact, it's a reality.
Here again is the fundamental principle of life itself: Reason and evidence. Schools value these. If they don't, they should because they can. And as long as reason and evidence prevail somewhere, creativity and intellect will be preserved and facilitated.

You're not failing because you're "creative" and the oppresive system is trying to keep you down, you're failing because you're a lazy slob who can't be arsed to study. Hard work and creativity are not mutually exclusive.

Are you an American? The American educational system is about standardized tests. You can argue that STEM should be pushed in schools, but it's hard to make the argument that standardized tests are the most efficacious vehicle through which to teach them.