But there has
always been an undercurrent of this-- that public schooling was developed not to EDUCATE,
per se, but also (maybe even "primarily") to
properly 'socialize' future workers for an industrial economy. Seriously.
This is something that critics of Dewey raised as early as the turn of the (19th) century as a potential failing/weakness of the public schooling model. It has ALWAYS been about social normalization. This is one reason why it tends to work so very poorly for children whose intellectual needs do not fall within a couple of standard deviations of the mean, too.
I've openly raised this question with administrators over the years-- that is, asked them to defend particular practices, procedures, etc. in terms of
educational value. Mostly they are abashed... but occasionally they can mount a reasonable defense. It's an important question to ask, however:
"How is {this practice} integral to the educational merit of the activity/lesson? Please explain this learning activity to me."
Often this serves as a wake-up call.