[jonathanwallace]

Your suspicion is incorrect.

Twenty years ago, my wife came out of graduate school where they learned about differentiated instruction and inquiry based instruction.

The education field is well aware of how to teach better. However, there are obstacles to the implementation.

1. Resources. Inquiry based education (where the children drive the study) requires a different student to teacher ratio than 30:1.

2. Inertia. You need a systemic change otherwise those fresh new teachers with their fancy up to date pedagogy run into #1 and principals, teachers, and students who are not ready for it.

3. Parents. Parents are also not ready for it. You have parents who want to be certain their child is prepared and ranked.