Reply #8: If you break it down [View All]

[Mythsaje]

it starts very early when the love of learning (something nearly all children start with) isn't encouraged from the beginning. Rote and repetition, while having some educational value, aren't the types of things that induce children to want to learn.

Then there's the social factors, the pressure to conform...not only from the school system, but from the other students. It's about turning out good little mid-level consumers, not starting them on the road to potential greatness. Far better (and easier) to churn out large numbers of mediocre minds than too many exceptional ones.

The whole approach is wrong and has been from the beginning. Old methods don't work in a world where information is everywhere and great discretion is needed to sort truth from fabrication. Teaching to the mean isn't going to cut it. Individual learning styles MUST be addressed and all the excuses in the world isn't going to change that fact.

The key, I believe, is more freedom, not more restrictions. And until we as a society begin to realize this, this decline is simply going to continue.