I'm a cook not a chef

As the title says, I'm a cook. The 2 restaurants I work at keep hiring young people just out of and even still in culinary school. They all seem to have dreams of what working in a kitchen should be, and it's painful to watch those dreams die. Why don't schools teach that a cook isn't a chef? They're assembly line workers that do the same repetitive task 7+ hours a day 5+ days a week. Day in and day out with little verity unless there's a menu change or a special that actually uses a new technique and not just a new way of assembling the usual. (Such as a steak and fried shrimp special. )