&gt; Most people are passive. They want a teacher to lead them and guide them through the learning process.<p>Bull. Most people have any interest in learning beaten out of them by our crappy factory&#x2F;prison like educational system. Because you know what&#x27;s not conducive to learning? Having no choice as far as subjects; having no choice how long you spend on them; having no choice on who to learn from; having no choice who you learn with.<p>PG has a classic essay on makers vs managers on scheduling, and he places emphasis on how for work like programming, getting into the material takes time. I see no reason this wouldn&#x27;t apply to learning. How much work would most developers get done if they had their day broken into 50 minute segments, five minute transition times, and six different projects they were required to work on every day with equal consistency?<p>My mother runs a Montessori preschool. Consistently, the kids that go off to first grade come back with stories of attending traditional school and wondering when they get to start doing something instead of sitting at their desk. Or when they can do something new instead of going through material they already know with the class. This is not to say Montessori is a perfect system - but it was actually designed with the education of children in mind, rather than efficiency from a bureaucratic perspective.<p>It bothers me greatly when someone blames the nature of people for problems that are systemic in nature - it feels no different from the ridiculous number of ADHD diagnoses we have these days, which seems to largely stem from not giving kids space to be kids.