I was watching this discussion between Paulo Freire and Seymour Papert (30:00) when Papert began to talk about the defining structure of school.
He describes School with a capital S as being about prefabricated curriculum, rows of desks, hand raising, lectures, quizzes, grading...
Ultimately, School is an instrument of control.
Unfortunately, when most people close their eyes and think of their Schooling, many know no other kind of School than the one with a capital S.
Papert strikes with clarity: When it comes to School it has a bureaucracy that has its own interests and it is not open to what is in the best interest of the children.
In John Holt's book _Instead of Education_ he writes about schools with a capital S, calling them S-chools, and contrasting them with lower case s-schools. (Also there's business about T-eachers vs. t-eachers.) Very similar arguments, but unfortunately I gave my copy away so I can't be any more specific than that right now. But if you haven't read that book, it's well worth your while. A very beautiful manifesto. Amazon link:
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