On learning

The Tyee points out that North America's obsession with standardized testing is not only harmful in itself, but the exact opposite tactic from that being taken by its global competitors:

It seems that in North America we conduct more research on education, learning and brain development, and ignore more of it, than anywhere else in the world. This needs to change. Studies have proven time and time again that standardized testing is unable to measure things that truly determine success or failure in life. Ironically, North American school reform, like the Fraser Institute's rankings, or the American "No Child Left Behind" act, are trying to bring our children's standardized test scores up to the level of Asia's students, some of whom have famously set the bar with dazzling displays of mental computation that beat the speed of calculators. At the same time, booming Asian countries are trying to reform their education systems to encourage innovation, creativity, social responsibility, and the capacity to engage in creative solutions and problem solving- none of which can be measured by a standardized test.

The ultimate standardized test will be the question of which countries wind up doing better from the standpoint of employers. And there's no reason for them to choose the less creative workers out of a crop of similar test performers.