Very thoughtful, insightful comments! Love that you included a cultural aspect as well - as certain cultures (for example, Japan, China) - there is much more of a group mentality emphasis.

If we focus too much on rote memorization we lose that independent, free, ability to go outside the box thinking. (How else will we get more disruptive innovators?)

Yet, we do need to learn some basic essentials that often rely on memorization ...

Love these discussions! Keep them coming!!