School authority structures contradict America’s freedom and equality norms, ruling out cultural-extension explanations.

Evidence

It is not obvious why the U.S. educational system should be the way it is. Since the interpersonal relationships it fosters are so antithetical to the norms of freedom and equality prevalent in American society, the school system can hardly be viewed as a logical extension of our cultural heritage. — Samuel Bowles and Herbert Gintis, Schooling in Capitalist America, 1118