My old man couldn't spell and couldn't do arithmetic (despite being a unix
sysadmin). In fact, he left school at 14 and didn't go back until a serious fall kept him off scaffolding for years, but he tried to help me navigate public school homework regardless. I've taken that as a lesson in socialism, so the wealthy might do well to farm that sort of thing out to tutors and private schools.
Less nostalgically, who was it that wrote "Preparing for Power"? One of his observations was that prep school students frequently said something along the lines of 'i can't breathe without being watched', and that mirrors were surprisingly common in hallways, etc.,. I.e., elite schools promote a certain type of subjectivity, which is part of the cost.
I can't help but think the style of the schooling, and the segregation, is as much just to mark 'distinction' as it is anything else. As Doug mentioned on his show, workers in factories and offices, and even inmates cleaning up highways, all talk to each other on the job. What's up with schools? I'm not even sure if 'docile body' is the right answer since nowhere else in life is that sort of docility expected.
-- Nathan