What seems silly to me is the particular cultural excitement and optimism around education and liberalism, and the way it was manifest in school, that I lived through as a kid and is now dead.

We may be talking about different eras. I'm Gen X, I don't remember any great excitement or optimism manifested in schools of my time.

Quite the contrary; I think I was one of only two or three people in my year to go on to university. But then I was a huge nerd who was really interested in ideas.

Yes I think that’s right. Thanks for sharing. Kids of the 60s-70s who were outsiders because of their academic/nerdy interest became teachers and created a culture with the ideals they thought were missing. And that’s what I experienced.