Our schools were designed to produce 19th-century factory workers - workers who would sit quietly at their benches all day, working identically, producing identical products.

Schools teach skills that are redundant and counter-productive. Teachers are leaving, their careers destroyed by overwork and a spirit-crushing administration of standardisation and testing. The less autonomy they have, the more the failures of the system are blamed on them.

• The Mantle of the Expert encourages children to form teams of inquiry, solving imaginary tasks beyond traditional subject boundaries, such as rescuing people from disaster.
• The Quest to Learn is based on the way children teach themselves to play games. To sol...