An Overly Optimistic View of Teaching and Learning?

As you may or may not know, education trends these days emphasize collaboration (yes, the dreaded group project, students planning what they want to learn, etc.) and de-emphasize competition. Humanistic educators believe that people are naturally good; if we are free of barriers, we will try to reach our full potential, and will be naturally driven to learn.

Here's a quote from Ron Iannone. It's part of an article published in an education journal: "As far as learning and teaching were concerned, we wanted people to be able to learn only what they were eager to learn, what they set out to learn on their own initiative, what they insisted on learning and what they were ready to work hard at. We wanted them to be entirely free to choose their own materials and books and teachers."

Is it just me, or is this overly optimistic? If I had been able to learn only what I wanted to learn in junior high and high school... and most of college, I would have mainly learned a lot about sex. With some sci-fi thrown in. And some sci-fi sex. I would then have been qualified to work at the Moonlight Bunny Ranch on a world orbiting Alpha Centauri.

On the other hand, I suppose it could have been fun. Did you know that the human male is the only primate who doesn't have a bone in his penis? From time to time I toy with the idea of getting a PhD in psychology with a concentration in human sexuality. I could work for the Kinsey Institutute...

As for collaboration, I can't say that I've ever met a group project that I liked. Personally, I like grades, because I get high ones (unless I'm working on a damn group project).