I find that is the common quote of people who forgot what it was like in high school. Myself, I'm 37 years old--but I haven't forgotten the ridiculous expectations they had. I got up at five in the morning for a two hour bus ride, unable to eat breakfast at that time of morning. I had seven classes, and each had two hours of homework each. Inevitably, all the classes had tests on the same day or projects due the same day. Then they demanded that we get a certain amount of volunteer hours in during the year, and that we were involved in one extracurricular activity. I didn't get home until five o-clock, and I didn't get done with my homework until 2 a.m. I am generally an organized student, and I had maintained until high school a 4.0 average. Staying home sick for one day got you horribly behind.
Of course, I was in the IB program--and maybe many of my young friends are in honors programs...they are certainly smart enough. It seems to me that these honors programs try to teach you everything you were supposed to learn the first eight grades, and then they try to teach you college courses too. In the end, it didn't seem to give anyone the advantage that was promised to them.
As for the work high school students are assigned and the work they actually do--the only way you can actually manage to get through school is to half-a** it.
I find most adults seem to believe they are the only ones with responsibilities. Many young people have responsibilities--often because their parents delegate their share. With me, I had to help take care of my mentally disabled stepfather--and that was A LOT to handle. Too much in the end to handle with high school, so I dropped out and got my GED.