People have a hard time admitting that the normal school experience is often a negative socialization experience. When it's good, it's good, but it should be obvious that alternatives can also be good.
For what it's worth, this is a very common result of shared suffering, from fraternity/sorority initiation rituals to compulsory military service.
Ironically, I've had a much better experience at university, where courses often has had more than a hundred students and only one professor to manage it all.
I was a curious child and school did nothing to encourage that, if anything at best it failed to discourage me from learning. It seemed to have little intent beyond keeping kids busy so parents can work & sort them from most to least competent.