Through the use of rote learning methods - lengthy, repetitive study of written words - many schools attempt to coerce students to force information for lengthy recall.  This produces only the illusion of knowledge: increasing test scores.  Such a process, however, is extremely stressful and inefficient when done to excess:  It does not utilize the whole brain, and results in more harm than benefit.

In today's world, the student's mind becomes split into two separate, disconnected spheres.  While the left brain is used for school, the right brain and limbic system are utilized for activities that take place outside of school.  The student never has the opportunity to use these spheres in cooperation.  In his mind, work and play become vast opposites - two diametrically opposed entities.  He cannot imagine a world in which they could become one and the same.

When children play, it often takes the form of work.  They might play 'house' or build things, often with the fantasy that it is real.

If education simultaneously involved all parts of the brain - in a manner of the student's choosing and without pressure to please someone else - work and play would become one.  If, however, fear is the most powerful motivating factor in our present educational system, work and play can never be unified.   Tests and grades tools both of control and fear.

A person's brain can perceive his situation as being under siege from forces threatening his very survival, even when those forces are absent.  If this state of chronic fear and hyperactivity - emergency mode - becomes a habit, it will eventually prove damaging to his health.  Even after an individual leaves school, events that occur later in his life may needlessly trigger the emergency response.

An extensive, relevant fund of information is important to success later  in life, but must be acquired in a manner consistent with healthy whole-brain functioning.