The way I have been told to learn does not work. I don’t have a PhD in education, but what I do have is over ten years of firsthand experience in America’s education system.  Ten years of No Child Left Behind but still feeling acutely left behind.  Ten years of CST’S, CAHSEE’S, AP’S and every letter in between.  And ten years of watching some of my closest friends lose interest in what they had previously loved to do every day.

On paper, the system works for me.  I’ve almost always received high grades and I’ve successfully discerned how to distinguish between A, B, C or D.  But intelligence encompasses much more than being able to succeed on multiple choice tests, and my peers suffer from this generalized viewpoint every day.  As much as officials have adopted a one-size fits all attitude, they’ve also increasingly turned to corporate entities to decide the…