Good things are happening to education in many places.

For example, in a trip to Amman, Jordan, journalist Thomas L. Friedman met with a group teaching Jordanian schoolteachers to teach creative thinking and adopt more innovative approaches to schooling (The New York Times, June 16, 2012).

 Jordan's schools are firmly focused on rote learning, and this is a significant step in the right direction.

Friedman responded that such education would be a true Arab Spring.

Visitors to schools in Africa are often surprised when the teacher is the only person with a textbook, and classes often consist of the teacher reading from the textbook and the students memorizing what is read.

Creative thinking and innovation are the furthest things from the minds of such students.

But many, indeed most, American schools aren't doing a lot better--at least in teaching innovation, initiative, creativity, ingenuity, originality and leadership.