Mostly what I see in my visits to middle and upper grades classrooms are examples of what of Michael Sedlack, et al. (1986), long-ago characterized as "the bargain"-- "you give me order and attendance, I'll give you passing grades and [minimal] homework." The only other public institution in our society that works this way, with this degree of focus and dedication, is the prison system.
Brings to mind Paul Graham's "Why Nerds are Unpopular":
And as for the schools, they were just holding pens within this fake world. Officially the purpose of schools is to teach kids. In fact their primary purpose is to keep kids locked up in one place for a big chunk of the day so adults can get things done. And I have no problem with this: in a specialized industrial society, it would be a disaster to have kids running around loose.
Where I agree with Richard Elmore (the author of the article) and disagree with Paul Graham is that the only alternative to having kids in the school is having them "running around loose".
This reminds me of PG's The Age of the Essay: specifically, where he mentions that writers for popular magazines ask hard questions, then recoil in terror. I'm left with a feeling that the summary here is really all I needed to know about the article, because the author stopped working after adding some description to better frame the question.
ETA: I'm not sure if edweek is popular in the way Seventeen/Cosmo/Redbook aim for, but it's still what the writing style reminds me of.
When I was younger, I really wanted an apprenticeship. When I was getting a CS degree, I felt like it should involve more code review. There's value in solving a problem yourself; but there's also value in comparing solutions and discussing the trade-offs they make. I would love to teach, but it seems to work best one-on-one, which is not really what the education system is set up to handle.
Reinforces my decision to home/in-school my boy. School was a prison for me and I'd not have that forced on him. Plus I learned far more outside of the classroom when given the chance.
Mostly what I see in my visits to middle and upper grades classrooms are examples of what of Michael Sedlack, et al. (1986), long-ago characterized as "the bargain"-- "you give me order and attendance, I'll give you passing grades and [minimal] homework." The only other public institution in our society that works this way, with this degree of focus and dedication, is the prison system.