After reading a lot of comments in a lot of threads like this one on a lot of sites, I've noticed a particular factor which sticks out: people who direct this sort of commentary at education in the US almost all seem to have attended very large universities.
I did not attend such a university, and my experience of "academics" was rather different from what's described in the linked comment; there were some things that I know were unusual about the way my college education was structured, and that not even all of the students there were getting the same level of or approach to education, but I suspect that there's a fundamental difference between large and small schools. The larger the institution, the more "efficient" it has to be with the resources at hand; this seems to lead naturally to the sort of bulk-processed "memorize this and regurgitate it on an exam" approach being complained about here. A smaller institution, meanwhile, isn't under the same pressure to move large volumes of students through its curriculum, and can afford to do things differently. I'm well aware that mine did, and thankful every day for that fact.
I did not attend such a university, and my experience of "academics" was rather different from what's described in the linked comment; there were some things that I know were unusual about the way my college education was structured, and that not even all of the students there were getting the same level of or approach to education, but I suspect that there's a fundamental difference between large and small schools. The larger the institution, the more "efficient" it has to be with the resources at hand; this seems to lead naturally to the sort of bulk-processed "memorize this and regurgitate it on an exam" approach being complained about here. A smaller institution, meanwhile, isn't under the same pressure to move large volumes of students through its curriculum, and can afford to do things differently. I'm well aware that mine did, and thankful every day for that fact.