It’s true that students in Finland, South Korea and Canada score better on mathematics tests. But it’s their perseverance, not their classroom algebra, that fits them for demanding jobs.

I believe you may have misread these sentences because they're terribly phrased. The author isn't claiming that the US scores lower than Finland, South Korea and Canada because they're less lazy. Rather, he's claiming that although these countries score better than the U.S. in math, their algebraic skills don't make a difference past graduation. Rather, their perseverance helps them in their career pursuits.

By extension, the author implies that US students can simply make up for a lack of algebraic knowledge with perseverance. Okay.

I agree.

The people who signed off on the funding that went to my school probably just wanted me to shut up and graduate though.

Any specific uses you have in mind for your computer? Are you in a design field? Engineering? Programming? Interesting in gaming or keeping your system vanilla for work?

Is absolute freedom a paradox if it's applied universally rather than to an individual?

If no one can place restrictions on one another, this places a restriction on everyone.

It seems to me then the question is asking if I would prefer absolute freedom or absolute security, applied to only me and no one else, which is essentially asking if I would rather do whatever I want or be imprisoned. Looking at the question this way, it's biased towards absolute freedom.