In the Interactive school, teachers and students alike are trying to define and create a world they can share, regardless of status. Standard schools study success, while Interactive schools study failure. These are crucial differences. Concerned with right answers, the Standard school can create an impression in students' minds that all previous progress was smooth, uninterrupted, and inevitable. This is all the more ironic, since fear of failure is the Standard school's chief means of motivating students.
Critical analysis thrives on problems, failures, and mistakes.
Far from being intimidated by failure, Interactive students are energized by it, like players of some multi-level computer game doggedly trying to get to the next level. Failure is simply the price they pay for success. The Standard school is powerfully oriented toward the future, toward laying down foundations for success long after today. Much of the coursework even in elementary schools is academic job-training, designed for the tiny fraction of their students who will become Ph.D.s. No doubt the readiness to defer gratification is a virtue, but computers condition us for getting results right now.