The term deliberate practice is coming into common usage, Sanjoy Mahajan notes, but deliberate practice is hard to find in our school system.
Of course, our school system has little interest in mastery or expertise, and it actively discourages children working at their own pace. It would rather dole out As, Bs, and Cs, and then promote everyone than have each student work up to an A on each lesson before advancing.
Since he’s writing on the Freakonomics blog, I thought someone would recommend giving kids the proper incentives: when you get a perfect score on the worksheet or quiz, you get to go to recess; until then, practice, practice, practice.