What if rote learning isn’t the problem?

There's a notion that triggers every reactionary reflex in Greeks, and that's rote learning, the predominant system still used in the country's public schools as a means of conveying knowledge, and for years blamed for all the ills of the Greek education system. This year, the third that Greece has conducted its equivalent of the Program for International Student Assessment, or PISA, the country's pupils basically failed for a third time. What did they fail at? At the ability to survive, would be the laconic answer. Why? Because PISA tests pupils aged 12 and 15 in language and mathematics to gauge whether they have the skills that allow them to deal with all matters.

The report by the committee conducting the test was alarming to say the least, as it found that one in five pupils are at risk of being functionally illiterate when they graduate from elementary and middle...