What is School?

From P.D. Ouspensky, Conscience: The Search for Truth. 1979: Routledge & Kegan Paul.

Schools can be of very different levels.
1 Preparatory schools of the fourth way can be divided into two categories. To the first category belong schools whose instructor acknowledges the superiority of his own being over the being of the students and by this promises the student help which is based on powers which surpass the powers of ordinary man. And to the second category belong schools whose instructor acknowledges the superiority only of his knowledge.
2 Schools of the first category, that is, schools whose instructor acknowledges the superiority of his being and his possession of powers which ordinarily man does not possess, are incommensurably more difficult and it is only possible to be in them by constantly remembering the principles of the work, by making a complete submission to the instructor and by strictly keeping the rules. The slightest deviation from remembering principles, from submitting to the instructor and from keeping rules makes continuing study in such a school impossible.
3 In schools of the second category the instructor can excuse many failings of individual students, even though it delays their work, so long as it does no harm to the general work of the school.
4 Making the difficulties of the work easier, reducing the demands or making concessions on the part of the instructor is never a privilege or an advantage for the students, on the contrary, it always indicates only failure of their work and their loss of place in the work.
5 Only raising or increasing the demands is a privilege.
6 Place in the work is determined by preparation, seniority, efforts, capacities, confidence in the instructor and understanding the aims of the work.
7 A student can begin without understanding fully the meaning of the ideas coming from higher mind and the aims of school work. But after a certain time a right valuation and understanding will be required of him and without this valuation and understanding he cannot continue.
8 The appearance of distrust towards the instructor and especially the expression of such distrust towards the knowledge, methods or personal opinions of the instructor makes continuing the work at the school impossible.
9 The student must remember that personal opinions of the instructor which contradict his own personal opinions are based on better methods of observation and reasoning than those which he can have at his disposal. For him, therefore, they should be a subject of study, not a subject of argument or objection.
10 He must remember that one of the aims of his work is a change in his points of view because his old points of view - being the points of view of a sleeping man - cannot be right. The task of the instructor is to show him the possibility of points of view which are in accord and which, at the same time, will contribute to his awakening.
11 The student must remember that he came to learn and not to teach or express his views.
12 Difference of opinion with the instructor can be an indication that the student has already obtained from him everything he can obtain and that he ought to leave the school and work independently. At the same time difference of opinion may simply show that the student has forgotten some of the fundamental principles of the work, or, what is still worse, has added something of his own to it, something he did not hear from the instructor. This makes all further work useless.
13 Independent work outside the school is possible in contact with the instructor or without contact.
14 Contact depends on the student and not on the instructor and is established if the student remembers everything that he has at any time heard from the instructor and follows all of it without any kind of deviation, and above all without adding anything of his own.
15 The instructor bears the responsibility for the work of the students and can help them in their difficulties only when in relation to him, they follow the principles of schools of the first category and submit to the rules of schools in the first category; that is, when they never forget what has once been said to them and do not argue with the instructor.
16 This is sometimes called imitating school work.
17 In one and the same school there can be different students, that is, students of schools of the first category and students of schools of the second category. This difference between students is determined solely by their attitude towards the instructor.