Michel Foucault's writing on the theory/idea of "Panopticism" is one that can make even the most trusting individual a little uneasy. Throughout life, one is put into boxes. Literally, and figuratively. For example, as Foucault mentions, a panoptican is a structure that is a singular building meant for the observation of prisoners. The prisoner can essentially be replaced with a variety of options - students, employees, patients and even animals.
Growing up with California Standardized Testing, it was routine for the cardboard desk separators to come out to box each student in to their "testing cubby." This was to ensure that no cheating and absolutely NO socializing was to take place. The instructor/teacher could monitor the classroom easily without the children being able to see anything but the flimsy test booklet and scantron form in front of them.
Foucault uses Bentham's Panopticon as a means to regulate discipline in everyday society. As he says, it is used to ensure an "apparatus of power." The observer rules/maintains through the weakness of the observed. In the prison example, the panopticon is concrete cells in a circular formation allowing no contact between the incarcerated. The center of the circle is "flooded with light" so the prisoner cannot see outward, but the guard in the tower can see each person individually. The person in turn becomes an "object of information, never a subject in communication."
School as an institution is oppressive. Going to a university or college (while burdensome in it's own way) is not the same, however. From kindergarten until completion of high school, the "well"-oiled machine chugs away; sit in your desk, listen to us talk, go on two small breaks under authoritative (prison guard) eye, homework (yard labor), sleep and start all over again. Once you're up for parole, the real world sends you back for more internment ("higher education.")
Effectiveness comes through individualization, yet in today's society the only individual attention the student gets is when he/she is being scolded by a teacher/aide/principal/parent. For the cynic, the panoptic representation of a prison has a seamless transition to primary-high school.
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