Schools are basically designed to crush that impulse, to humiliate, and to control. I never knew what boredom was until I went to school. I spent a good part of 1st and 2nd grade in the corner...sometimes on my knees...even though I was a straight A student. A significant proportion
[WS:] Yeah, Orwell writes a nice horror story on this (Such, such were the joys)
http://whitewolf.newcastle.edu.au/words/authors/O/OrwellGeorge/essay/suchjoy s.html
See also another of my favorites "Welcome to the doll house" for a more close-to-home experience
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Welcome_to_the_Dollhouse
I had a similar school experience and was even kicked out of a public elementary school for disobedience, which is rare indeed.
In the retrospect, however, I think that schooling (even the most horrible one) is on a balance a good experience, as it becomes evident by observing the scores of unschooled children in Third World countries.
Life is not about "me," "having fun," or "expressing my individuality" as spoiled American brats and their self-centered parents seem to believe. It is about finding oneself in a much much bigger picture - society, humanity, the world, the universe an all the good and (mostly) bad things it dishes out. Most non-American cultures teach that - for example, Buddhist schools impose very strict structure and discipline on the pupils to tech them self-control, as opposed to self-indulgence that seems to be of value in the gringo culture.
The film 'Farewell, my concubine' http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farewell_My_Concubine shows one of the most harrowing pictures of training children to be actors in China - Orwell's descriptions of British schools in "Such, such were the joys" are tame in comparison. But the effects of that brutal and sadistic training are truly spectacular.
I think the value of schooling is not to provide a substitute for "nurturing parents" as many bleeding hearts tend to believe, but to wean children from such nurturance and create a "dry run" for the real life experience. It prepares children to cope with other people, many of whom are mean spirited whether one likes it or not, to deal with adversities that life brings whether one likes them or not, and to have a chance to see something bigger than one's own navel. If some kids learn some math, science, arts or literature in the process, this is an added bonus.
Wojtek