Frustration in Music Tuition

I know the public education system is fairly continuously under fire and probably doesn't need another semi-aware individual to lay crap on it's foundations but hey, something just ain't working. I'm speaking of the difference between 'learning' and 'remembering'.

I teach music privately. Singing, piano and flute and EVERY week, I end up in a cafe with my mother (also a music teacher) almost screaming with mutual frustration about the seeming inability of students to accept any responsibility for their own learning. Further, they seem to have no problem with understanding at the time of teaching but are unwilling to ever put in the extra time to consolidate what they have learned.

It should be mentioned that the students in question are all in their mid to late teens and have ambitions to become professional musicians, or at very least to get into the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, Newtown Highschool for the Performing Arts, UWS, NIDA etc.

The current State school system, I believe is partly to blame for this. I know I'll be howled down on all sides, but I went to a State school and remember very clearly how little effort I had to put in to achieve above-average results.

In the current school system, one is encouraged to have a great memory for a limited period. The ability to conect concepts and learning is really only an absolute in Mathematics. Following, many of my students wait until the last minute to 'cram' for music, having been taught for years that the spitting out of particular 'facts' will get them through the examination.
Unfortunately, in musical education, everything is a pyramid. If you haven't learned the previous levels you will ultimately fall down and be terribly lost when you get to the next level.
I have students that do a theory paper perfectly in one lesson, nodding away that they understand the concepts I am teaching (and I truly believe they do at the time) and then returning the following week having forgotten the lot.

Worse, is the constant and ridiculous encuragement of mediocrity at work in our system. Regional high school teachers have gone so far in the encouragement that students graduate believing they are owed a successful career and an easy path. What is exceptional in your high school is often mediocre to ordinary in the real world of working musicians.
Said students often resent the private music teacher for their subsequent failings in the 'real world' of earning a living as a musician.

Student A is a case in point.
Magnificent singer. No, I mean truly. This girl has a real gift. She has crammed for all her previous theory exams and therefore has never really learned the concepts and structures. Recently auditioned for the Conservatorium and was knocked back on her theory and aural skills (yes, those things that can't be 'crammed'). High school teachers told her she was an 'amazing talent' and a 'very special girl'. She believed that her talent would be enough to get her through and is now in quite a dark funk, believing that she is ignorant and stupid (musically).

It's a real mess any way you look at it. But please, anyone reading this in high-school; You may be te biggest fish in your pond, but PLEASE prepare for auditions with a single-mindedness that would put the greatest thinkers to shame. Stop riding the easy horse and start cultivating the intention to be the best, -not someone who just 'passes'.
Believe me, the world of professional musicians is a constant struggle bewteen thousands of people who are all working their asses off to be 'the best'. Those that settle with mediocre end up working in Coles for $11/hr.