This sounds like another case of skewed testing. The most obvious was when people who had never walked on a natural surface wrote Student Achievement Tests and asked questions that favored the experiences of city dwelling children over non-urban students. What you should be looking at is the Whole Language Method Of Education. Students are subjected to fifty five minutes of lecture and then sent to the next fifty five minute lecture for six hours, with a half hour for lunch. When I was a student we solved math problems and wrote essays in class.