Well, of course it isn't.
The purpose of school has it's roots in the "social efficiency" movement of the early twentieth century, and is the magnum opus of such upstanding men as Carnegie, Rockefeller, Ford, and J.P. MOrgan.
Traditional learning forums have always had three foundational purposes:
- teach people to be good - teach people to be good citizens - teach people to maximize whatever talent they have
With the influence of the industrialists, however, a fourth purpose came into being:
- train humans to a uniform set of performance specifications that will produce the greatest number of "middle-of-the-bell-curve" consumers and employees.
Now, you tell me THAT isn't "taking...children apart psychologically" with the FULL endorsement of everyone from parent to Principle, to Priest, and Pope.
Bluntly put, psychological mutilation in the interest of future social efficiency is THE stock-in-trade of modern public education. School doesn't train young minds to be all they can be, it trains them to inhabit a cloth-lined cubicle, or stand at an assembly line dropping the same bolt into the same hole for eight hours every day with just two ten-minute potty breaks, and a half-hour to cram down lunch. Only public education could find within itself the flaming gall to teach children that an establishment like a McDonald's restaurant has something that can be called a "Career Track".
The greatest enemy of the West is radicalized Islam, but public education has a lock on the number two slot.
Our nation's **most** serious threat is Marxism/Communism! ( Mis-named “liberalism”.)
And...The Marxist/communist's **most** important weapon is our K-12 schools, colleges, and universities.
We can survive a nuclear suitcase bomb. We will not survive if the Marxists/Communists who control our schools succeed in in indoctrinating the next generation of voters.
The stated purpose of schools, and why parents entrust their children to "educators" is so that their children will become educated and successful.
This has never be "all" of it, of course, and will never be as long as school remains a handy dandy place to indoctrinate all those young minds full of mush. Especially easy since they're already their to learn.
The odd thing is that with all the indoctrination they have to fit into a day's school, there is very little time for education.
My children were, are, and will be home schooled, of course. They are their own wonderful people, and are very successful and happy, everything a parent would want in their children.
I only have a tiny bone of contention with what you say, and it is that you wrote: "Now, you tell me THAT isn't "taking...children apart psychologically" with the FULL endorsement of everyone from parent to Principle, to Priest, and Pope.
The Popes have actually held that the family and the Church hold sway long before the State, and that the State should submit to the family in matters of education:
The first natural and necessary element in this environment, as regards education, is the family, and this precisely because it is so ordained by the Creator Himself. Accordingly, that education which is received in a well-ordered and well-disciplined Christian family will, as a rule be more effective and lasting, and more efficacious in proportion to the clear and constant good example set, first by the parents, and then by the other members of the household...
The State therefore has the duty to respect the prior rights of the family and of the church in the matter of education, and even protect these rights. If the State were to "monopolize education," this would violate the rights of individuals, of the family, and of the Church.
Christian Education of Youth, Pope Pius XI
Isn't that awesome?