I have two daughters who were writers. My youngest wrote imaginative, interesting and thoughtful stories when she was 10. Neither of my daughters write now. I was not aware of what was going on with my older daughter, so I missed what happened to her. I know she was part of some online "write a novel" thing -writing over 150 pages, then something happened at school. And she stopped.

With my younger daughter I saw it clearly however. She wrote a very good, interesting creative story. The teacher told her to write it over. Because she had not done the assignment - which was to write something that had two paragraphs. This teacher had not the slightest sense of what she had written, what was good about it or how to help her make it better. He was not a teacher - do we even have a name for people who stifle creativity.

This was not a poor or under-performing school. This was by all measurements a "good" school. Just not a "good" school for kids.

Our educational system is a failure. It is not because of the teachers. It is because schools have embraced the stupidity that the only way to learn is to follow what other people do. And to follow them blindly.

At some of the best and highest priced colleges, students are treated as though they are next generation leaders, the soon to be best and brightest, that their thoughts are worth while.

My daughters learned that their writing was not worthwhile, by someone who learned at school to treat students like the student's own thinking, thoughts and expressions were not worthless but worth nothing.

This particular emperor, our educational system, has no clothes.