I think different school systems focus on different things and part of that stems from cultural values. If anything, that's a good thing, because it allows for diversity, specialization, etc., which is important to have in collaborative efforts. If you're looking at becoming a teacher and you're worried about humanities suffering in your university, you could look at sponsoring some kind of club. Classic literature, film studies, debate teams, what ever. It'll allow kids further opportunities to explore and at the same time they'll get the added benefit of being able to network and develop much needed social skills.

As for kids adjusting to the real world, they can do all they can to prepare for it, but they never really know what it's like until they're in it. Part of that probably has to do with micro-cultures and shit too. Those are all due to social, regional, and even job differences. For example, I've made a comment on here before that I don't think I'd do too well in The Pacific Northwest because cultural differences there are just enough that sometimes I don't understand the perspective people there are coming from. If someone worked in the back of a kitchen for ten years and then all of the sudden found them self working in a hospital, they'd have to acclimate themselves not only to a new job, but new expectations, a new dialog with its own jargon, new values, etc. There are people I interact with on here every day that I would never interact with in real life. Some of that's due to geographic location (hello to you, wherever you are in Russia by the way) but a lot of that is due to the social stratification that comes from education and income levels, jobs, etc. I'm in my niche, they're in theirs, and there's not a lot of movement back and forth without good cause to bring us together, say mutual enjoyment of cars and car culture for example.

College is good for building a template. The real world is good for a final model.