It seems like we might be heading into an era where questioning the methods of traditional Western education will become commonplace. This is exciting, as it cr

It seems like we might be heading into an era where questioning the methods of traditional Western education will become commonplace. This is exciting, as it cracks open the paradigm for smart people to analyze and modify. If we let some of the top creative, scientific minds spill their guts about schooling in a public forum, who knows what could happen? What I worry about, however, are the fools who will use specific criticism of our implementation of education to fight education in the general sense. Every time I read one of these articles, there are inevitably dozens of comments by idiots who don't have any specific criticism of the system at hand, but would rather rail against the idea that learning is important. In fact, conflating the "Platonic ideal" of education with the American school system is exactly the kind of confusion that prevents anyone from making any progress in the first place.