This paper discusses a fundamental problem of school that turns teaching into Sisyphos work: Before entering school, all children grow up into conjunctive spaces of experience, especially those of the family. These conjunctive spaces of experience, however, contrast with the public character of the school: While the knowledge and skills acquired in conjunctive experiential spaces are valid only in the latter, the public school claims to impart general knowledge and skills, and this, moreover, with the aid of scientifically founded teaching methods. This contrastbetween the experiential background of children and the public school brings about, among others, disadvantages for children from certain experiential spaces (such as those of girls or children of workers). The paper argues that the teachers’ Sisyphos work is, nevertheless, worthwhile precisely because the school lessons do not overcome the pupils’ spaces of experience, but expand them into an educational culture.