The goal of school is compliance, not curiosity.

"An individual with a schooled mind conceives of the world as a pyramid of classified packages accessible only to those who carry the proper tags." — Ivan Illic

At school, chemistry is about reciting the periodic table and history about memorising dates.

Everything we learn can be reduced down to an answer that is either right or wrong.

And that is determined by whether or not you follow the established set of rules for that subject.

The ones who come first are considered the smartest, their academic success testament to their fidelity to this discipline.

The job of teachers is not just to explain, but to enforce these rules and conventions.

Rather than serving the people, the people end up serving the institution.

In the process they become dehumanised, losing confidence in their own skills and acquiescing to the rules in order to function within the institution.

If you have been given a brief to breed cynicism into an entire generation, you could not have come up with a better formula.

If our kids become nothing more than measurable data sets, the marks are the destination point of their education.

The good teachers set our kids free.