Down-voted because as someone personally involved in my local school district, this overly cynical view does not reflect at all the actions or motivations of the people involved in primary education.
Let me preface this comment by saying: this isn't my view of primary education, but of secondary mostly. Primary education has undergone a lot of changes and it is increasingly effective at education.
However, yes, the motivations of the people involved in a system is often at-odds with the system they've got themselves involved in.
The teacher's motivation may be school's auxiliary function but their mental and physical energy is spent on its primary and secondary functions.
"For the sake of educating these children, I will sacrifice my effort/energy/time in disciplining them, in grading them, in differentiating them, and so on".
People need their motivations.
My aim is to describe the system not to describe the motivations of the people involved: the former is social anthropology; the latter is religion.
I can remember several teachers who really cared about helping the students learn, and who always tried to do their best for them. They'd even go beyond their official duties, e.g. I learned the basic concepts of trigonometry before I was officially allowed to learn them from an off-duty math teacher.
But despite them being personally good people, by accepting the job they bought into an oppressive system. If they tried to improve things too much they'd be fired. Existence of good teachers doesn't make the system as a whole good.
Let me preface this comment by saying: this isn't my view of primary education, but of secondary mostly. Primary education has undergone a lot of changes and it is increasingly effective at education.
However, yes, the motivations of the people involved in a system is often at-odds with the system they've got themselves involved in.
The teacher's motivation may be school's auxiliary function but their mental and physical energy is spent on its primary and secondary functions.
"For the sake of educating these children, I will sacrifice my effort/energy/time in disciplining them, in grading them, in differentiating them, and so on".
People need their motivations.
My aim is to describe the system not to describe the motivations of the people involved: the former is social anthropology; the latter is religion.