As a former middle school teacher who escaped into programming, I think the problems of teaching are systemic to the education system itself. Teaching to a test

As a former middle school teacher who escaped into programming, I think the problems of teaching are systemic to the education system itself. Teaching to a test is short-sighted and a phenomenal waste of effort and money. Some rare teachers can use a combination of persuasion, charisma, fear, and group dynamics to be very successful at teaching to a test. They can make students jump through the hoops, remembering just enough to get it all out before summer hits and they forget it all again. The current model of education is a "push" model, where the skill of the teacher is the defining measure, and the goal is temporary memorization of facts. Instead we need to move to a "pull" model, where students learn to love learning, and through this teach themselves fact checking, research, critical thinking, and civic responsibility. I believe this is the obvious next step for a world where any fact is freely available inside one's pocket or library. I do not believe this is possible with grouping by age or with lecture and test based classes. The Sudbury school is one such attempt, and it apparently is quite effective. We need to start moving all our schools this way! https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sudbury_school https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sudbury_school