but those are something you learn for your interest, not something the society has deemed necessary for everyone to know.
school has conflicting goals, you need to help develop both kid with interest in learning and kid that would spend their time in other activities but need to reach the same goals nonetheless
Well, even when we learn to read and write, and learn maths, is that not self-improvement? Do we learn this things because they are beneficial and useful in our lives; or is it just a matter of achieving the highest score?
When you write things on this forum; is your only motivation to receive the most upvotes and get the highest score?
Just because something is useful to society, doesn't mean that it will have no use for ourselves, does it?
Indeed, if you don't use some kind of authority towards students, you won't be able to teach them things that they can't see the point in at all.
The question is whether we (as teachers / as society) choose to use tests and authority to motivate them by fear; or to try to entice their interest in the subjects; or if something is genuinely not interesting then perhaps just not force that it upon students at that particular time.
My favourite teachers have had an radiant enthusiasm for what they were teaching, and could make almost anything interesting. On the other hand, some teachers manage to make even the most exciting subjects dull.
school has conflicting goals, you need to help develop both kid with interest in learning and kid that would spend their time in other activities but need to reach the same goals nonetheless
this is definitely not about self improvement.