Here's an interesting tidbit about Einstein's life: he performed poorly in the public schools.
He also performed poorly in college... Academics weren't his thing.
Not all that badly, actually. No true genius will ever be revealed by any cookie-cutter educational system. Some are academically successful, Kepler, Copernicus and Gauss for instance. Some have no academic record to speak of like Edison, Heaviside or Lincoln. Most simply do not and cannot fully flower in any academic enviroment. I am convinced that none of my high school math or science teachers, with one clear exception, had anything worthwhile to say about math or science. My high school English teachers were at best semiliterate.