“In a society geared toward the specialization of each of its members and subject to the all-powerful criterion of efficiency, school has evolved according to a natural process which leads to strange absurdities. The goal is no longer to further the development of each individual - it is to supply society with individuals who will fit satisfactorily into the mechanism of production. Thus its primary function, education, has become secondary to its selective and orientational functions. Each child is launched into a ruthlessly competitive obstacle race where blunders are punished with assignment to a more restricted course. The most fortunate do of course get an opportunity for a broad education, but they quickly find that each obstacle successfully surmounted is only a prelude to the next. Not only school but life as a whole has been transformed into a succession of waiting periods; success is never experienced as happiness, but as preparation for the next inevitable exploit. No stage is an accomplishment, and nonetheless the ineluctable final stage is well known.”
— Albert Jacquard