A wise teacher knows that it is his or her job to meliorate this compulsion, as well as the many other discomforts of schooling in a mass society, e.g., arbitrary schedules for eating, drinking, defecating. Students soon pick up on the fact that teachers themselves are often restricted in what they can do, even if the activity is interesting and educational. Teachers know students in certain ways better than their parents do. Teachers understand individual students in relation to other students of the same age and background. Teachers' experience gives them a sense of comparison parents often lack.
Teachers are less likely to be obsessed, as parents often are, with a student as an individual.
In this respect, lawyers, who serve clients act more like parents than teachers. No less important, teachers may know better than parents what a child is capable of. Parents, obsessed with standards unrealistically chosen for the child's age and ability, may make the very demands that bring about failure they fear. A good teacher knows when to insist and when to indulge. Teachers not infrequently act as advocates for children.