I understand what Shifty is talking about. Perhaps he's in a trade school (Matura/Abitur am Ende?)?
In Austria, for instance, the system is set up so:
4 years elementary school
4 years in a "middle school" (at the start you can choose to either go to a school with a much higher requirement of intelligence or stay in your hometown and do normal school)
After the 8 years, you choose a trade OR you continue with your public schooling (at this point you're about 14 years old).
If you continue with your public schooling, you can choose a technical school (IT, engineering, architecture, etc.), one of the two business schools or a normal "high school". But even the normal high school is harder than in most American high schools. My girlfriend did the IT technical stuff and by the time she was done (age of 19 since those schools are all for 5 years long, not counting the normal "high school"), she had finished stuff well above what I had been doing in my college in the US!
The American school system is the laughing stock of the western world and no one can really deny it. Certainly in the case of some private schools and charter schools could one make the case that it's up to European standards, but even then you'd have to try hard.
But Jenspm - at least his education system is trying to prepare him with a future and a place where he can learn industry standards before he does anything more advanced. He at least is getting formal training. Certainly he's probably learning things better than a lot of people who learn programming in their spare time.