We had an 'Open Campus" and we were able to come and go as we pleased all day. It was a great liberal experiment for its time. But like all liberal ideas in education circles...It failed miserably and was done away with several years later. By the time my sister got to HS it was locked up tighter than a Catholic school girl at a cyo dance.
You are 100% correct. I hated school because it was (rightly) trying to civilize me, and I would have preferred at the time not to be civilized.
That is the main task of all good schools...civilizing their male charges. Females take a lot more readily to law and order (and civilization,) while most young males are basically barbarians who left to their own devices would waste large amounts of time and accomplish little.
The only thing I liked about school was the library and being let loose during recess and lunch hour to run around like the little barbarian I was.