Growing old is required. Growing up is optional.

    I've got no strings so I have fun
    I'm not tied up to anyone
    They've got strings, but you can see
    There are no strings on me

Viewed as meta-game, school can be viewed as the child's exercise in learning where society attaches the strings, and how to acquire and retain slack in them. Where better to learn Bureaucracy-fu than in a bureaucracy?

A video about strings (both literal and metaphorical): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M_CZTi8L29c

Compare a 1940 vision of catfishing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iAykOz1gWi4