"...that's supposed to lead to learning and open-mindedness?"
It's not, as you point out. It's indoctrination. That's why teachers hate it too. They want to teach, not force kids into psychological blinders and straight jackets, but no one pays them to teach. It's just called that, and they're not actually taught to be indoctrinators either, to minimize realization of what is actually happening in school. The institution actually does most of the indoctrinating, so teachers being really bad indoctrinators doesn't prevent it from being nominal. You'd hopefully be surprised at how much schools resemble prisons in critical ways, such as food, hygiene, and institutionally, that confine the victims into desired mental states.
I remember being amazed when at the age of the kids you interacted with, I was edified in a civics/economics class I expected to be utterly ignorable. Managing personal finances, choosing politicians, and institutional structure were communicated by the teacher - who was actually the mayor of my village at the time - in a way I was shocked to realize how important these things were to ME. All my prior indoctrination was designed to get me to ignore those things, to disempower me from self governing, for reasons that suddenly then inspired me to be ungovernable.
That was one of very few classes I didn't hide a pulp scifi novel behind the textbook and ignore to the best of my abilities. Sounds like you managed to actually teach for a day.
Thanks!
I had the novel hidden under the desk when I was a kid, too! It's very true, what you point out - the great tragedy of many a teacher is that they actually want to do something good and help these kids in a system viciously opposing that.
It's a shame cause it can be a great class if taught properly, I think. These aren't at all ignorable matters, but if the school system treats it as an unimportant class, it's no wonder kids do too (and go on to do so in adulthood,as well). Thanks for the input! :)