[calibraxis]

Also, I'd use the natural explanation, which the evidence points to: schools are reasonably successful at inculcating conformity and ignorance. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pFf6_0T2ZoI) If they didn't fulfill this social function, they'd be dismantled or fixed.

(Thinking otherwise is like thinking that invading Iraq was about WMDs and the US gov't was noble-but-fumbling. Contorting ourselves into logical pretzels to preserve an illusion.)

I wish people like Edward Frenkel well. (Author of "Love and Math: The Heart of Hidden Reality", who tries to undo the damage done by math education.) But they're fighting an educational system which is inherently opposed to supporting critical thought, which fires effective teachers who refuse to work in the correct ideological framework.