Took a while for Ken Robinson to be brought up. I'm almost disappointed. While we're at it, Lockhart's Lament is worth reading.

I'll give a bit of a view from the class side since I'm a young 'un (first year at Shef Uni). I find things fascinating. Things I've learnt the past semester about number theory and others have been extras added in by the lecturer because he found them interesting.

There's nothing like that at Secondary School. Maths in particular isn't that interesting, but my teacher made it worth learning. I was put in one of the lower groups due to something happening with one of those aptitude tests (and according to their stats, I went from being a 4B to a 6B. I came to the school with a 5) and the next year was in a higher set. I felt like I was doing less work the second year.

Something that needs understanding: Learning is an interesting hobby. People look up things on Wikipedia when they're bored for a reason. I wonder what would happen if we removed exams from the equation.