Some Asian nations have begun to copy aspects of U.S. education, including the emphasis on letting students search for answers rather than memorize them.
Unlike birthright, which determines caste, the skills in question are teachable: the ability to communicate crisply in clear English, to work with teams and deliver presentations, to use search engines like Google, to tear apart theories rather than memorize them.
But it is also home to the California Institute of Technology, where 15 years ago the faculty began to develop for the district a curriculum that teaches children to "think like scientists" rather than memorize facts they don't understand.
Inquiry-based approaches are closely aligned with constructivist theory - we "create knowledge" as we research, explore and brainstorm, rather than memorize a set of knowledge that is presented to us.
They expected that the contact with real patients will help them understand the theory rather than memorize it.
Reform math grew out of an effort to instill in students a deeper understanding of what they are doing rather than memorizing facts and repeating answers.
At the supermarket, for instance, students are taught to say, "Show me what you want," rather than memorizing the names of dozens of products.
Rather than memorizing an arbitrary number of empty "traits" as part of some corporate program, teenagers should be learning their life lessons at school from literature, extracurricular activities and relationships with their teachers.
Placing emphasis on understanding scientific concepts rather than memorizing facts and information.
By jumping straight into larger projects, students can spend more time wrestling their code and discovering the best strategies rather than memorizing the definition of a histogram.
