policy makers often look at side effects of success and, not understanding how success is achieved, seek to make the side effects more likely. They see success

policy makers often look at side effects of success and, not understanding how success is achieved, seek to make the side effects more likely. They see successful economies spend lavish sums on housing, so to have a successful economy, subsidize housing. Intelligent people do well on tests, so raising test scores will produce intelligent people. Never mind that the obsession with test taking make it even a more mind numbing experience. Are people truly better innovators after going through such a process? We need to study exactly this question. Actually, I would not be surprised if alternatives like the Montessori method have already been proven superior.