If Australian teachers were highly respected and very well paid, there would be a much higher proportion of excellent people who become school teachers.

If the curriculum was not post-modernist rubbish, the essential tools of for acquiring and retaining knowledge, for logical and consistent thinking and provided data instead of opinion and emotion then disciplined thinking would be fostered as it was in the middle of the 20th century and the pleasure of knowledge would be restored.

If the "rights" and "freedoms" of children were not worshipped over and above their needs and responsibilities then order could be established in the classrooms and class work would occupy most of their time rather than repeatedly having to re-establish order and self-controlled concentration on learning.

"It doesn't really tell you how good the overall system is. It tells you how good the system is at taking these particular tests. It's a different thing."

So instead of teaching the surgeon how to actually do the surgery.
We teach the surgeon why they are doing it.

(We then have surgeon who are psychologist with no idea how to stich up a patient)

These academic's teaching our kids have lost the plot.

Set a test. 
Teach our kids to pass the test. 
Simple !
Don't complicate it.

I have a brillant idea, 
lets go back &
lets teach to the test.

1+1=2

Not

1+1= depend's ! { (a) if 1 is black, white OR (b) if 1 is straight or gay }

Teach them the basic (yes: teach to the test) to compete globally.
Then you can go on your super_hero tangent 
&
Teach them to save the world.

My daughter was among the first to have the notebook computers in the classrooms. What happened is she got 'hooked' and used it largely for social media only. She was awake past midnight with her computer in the bedroom. We had endless fights as I tried to hide it from her,,remove it from her by 9pm, and so on. I took it back to the school and left it with them after her school results went down at the next half yearlies. Seven years later, I can no longer try to keep my son off 'screens'. Trying to take his smart phone off him in the night so that he will sleep, or during the day, so he will focus on reading a book, or writing a long response essay, is fraught with endless conflict and fights. Both these children used to get in the High Distinction range in the University of NSW literacy and numberacy tests, but both failed to do very well in the HSC. Along the way, our home life plummeted in satisfaction level. 
My youngest son rarely reads a book, and only at my insistence. My three children used to be avid readers and I know that educationally and in life they benefited from this reading behaviour. Only my eldest - a pre-screen child continues to read.
I feel let down by the teachers, that they have 'rolled over' for this technology - because all technology is better - right?