It has been believed traditionally that the only way to properly educate our children is through the standard classroom method. This includes having a teacher speak in front of a group of students, covering a wide variety of the most fundamental topics such as Math, Science, and English. It also means attending school five days a week for most of the day, similar to a full-time job, with assignments and homework to complete outside of these designated school hours as well.
There are many words that end with S that are singular. While this topic is debated both are technically correct. What you're quibbling about is the last word I used as an example, semantics.