Yeah, it pretty much demolishes the notion that the school is there for your child's education. What they're telling you is that they are there to make sure your child learns precisely and only what they want him to learn, which does not include how to think or how to learn anything else on his own.
This reminds me of a story my mother told about my brother's teacher in Kindergarten (California, 1960's). She found out that he already knew how to read, and told my mother that she shouldn't have taught him to read because "now he's going to have to unlearn everything and start over the way we do it here." Needless to say, he didn't have that teacher anymore after that remark.
I had an experience in college that was related in a way. It was a World Geography class, I believe, and I had continually challenged answers on tests that were marked wrong but were really correct. The professor always changed the answer key to match my challenges, and corrected my grades on the tests, but one time he just blew me away when I asked about some questions. He said he wasn't changing any more answers on the key, and he was "tired of carrying me". Excuse me, I had a 4.0 GPA and was running with a solid A in that class as well, so what the hell? It's not MY fault the answer key was wrong and I was right, and if the point was to learn the material, the right answers should matter and I should get the grade I deserved! But that showed me that the point was not to learn the material or get an education, but just not to make waves and make sure the staff got paid for being there.
That's what the school in question in this thread is about--being there and not stirring things up. They're lucky they don't have me.
