That's a misconception. "Growing brains" is the idealized intent of educational programs. The actual function of education is to indoctrinate future citizens an

That's a misconception. "Growing brains" is the idealized intent of educational programs. The actual function of education is to indoctrinate future citizens and condition obedient workers. It is far, far easier to control a society when the people have very little emotional intelligence. Coincidentally, I was browsing through my copy of Robert Greene's 48 Laws of Power: Look at the part of a person that is most visible -- their greed, their lust, their intense fear. These are the emotions they cannot conceal, and over which they have the least control. And what people cannot control, you can control for them. In the same chapter, Greene advises one to find the "helpless child". Pretty much all emotional vulnerabilities come from childhood hangups. You find the conditions that will regress someone into a helpless child, and they will come to depend upon you. Those who understand power dynamics have no incentive to teach emotional intelligence. And for most people, actually working with emotions is very difficult and brings up a lot of ugly stuff. People generally don't want to.