That's backwards. Teachers do not force students to be compliant. On the contrary, parents and school administrations force teachers to be compliant when their

That's backwards. Teachers do not force students to be compliant. On the contrary, parents and school administrations force teachers to be compliant when their students ask to be allowed not to work as hard. If schools were teaching deference and compliance, you wouldn't have such a student who is truant yet aced every test. The truth is our schools aren't teaching much of anything, and it's partially because of the attitude you outline in your post - everyone believes that their child is that exceptional student who despite being an arrogant prick and never showing up to class, is still brilliant. Consequently they raise hell until teachers relent and give their children good grades. Now, of course this is less likely to happen with the aforementioned truant child, because the teacher has something concrete to point to as to why the child is undeserving. In the case of the child who shows up every day and does work yet is not learning, the teacher has nothing to tell the parents other than the truth - and the truth will cause the teacher a world of grief. Of course, really, parents don't have to actually cause trouble. The assumption that every child is deserving of good grades has been institutionalized, so teachers have to have wills of iron to go in year after year and risk parental attacks.