role of teacher--re a111a in particular

I am feeling some ideological dissonance between my sets of classes, Dropping Out of High School/School,Family, Community Partnerships v. T440/S300. This resonates with me:
"If being educated means no longer needing a teacher--a definition I would recommend--it would mean that you had been presented with models of teaching, or people playing this external role, and that you have learned how the role was played and how to play it for yourself....What we hope, of course, is that as the formal, institutional part of education is finished, its most conspicuous and valuable product will be seen to be the child's ability to educate himself. If this doesn't happen, it doesn't make sense to say that the processes we try to initiate in school are going to be carried on when people leave school."
I, Thou, and It, p. 54

too much of the education talk in this country is centered around artificial goals, but here is a genuine and legitimate goal for schooling--prepare people to teach themselves. Of course we should be concerned with whether kids can get jobs, but framing the goal of education in terms of economic competitiveness not only obscures a more wonderful goal such as the one above, but it also denies that fact that students with HS diplomas are more likely to get jobs or higher paying jobs because employers assume that a HS diploma is evidence of a host of cognitive and non-cognitive skills they want in an employee. Some of these are probably taught in schools--like obedience. But doesn't every employer want an independent thinker, a problem solver, a "self-starter"?