[rootusrootus]

I think it's important to draw some distinction between primary, secondary, and post-secondary education.

In primary school I am 100% for focusing on learning, and limiting the bureaucracy around it to only that which furthers the goal of learning. Punishing tardiness or unexplained absences doesn't make much sense, but noticing it does, because improving attendance is a worthy goal in pursuit of learning.

When you get to secondary school it makes some sense to put a bit more emphasis on responsibility.

And in post-secondary school, you're a customer now, so I think the teacher should only really care about what you do insofar as it might impact the service being sold to other paying customers.

[wpietri]

Nah. The customer model is frequently corrosive to mission-driven organizations. Imagine it in medicine, for example. If I asked my doctor to prescribe me morphine because I'm the customer and I want it, they'd refuse. They should.

Education has a deep societal purpose, especially in democracies and advanced economies. Its consumers are generally immature, and are definitionally people who are ignorant about important things. Education must not be structured solely around whatever a 19-year-old happens to want.

[jessaustin]

"What the [parents] want" may not be the best model for education, but it's certainly not the worst in regular use. Actually, that's true in medicine as well.