Place an ordinary, untrained, hungry chicken in a cage equipped only with a lever that, when depressed, will release a food pellet, and that chicken will try out a multitude of inspired yet ultimately unsuccessful solutions to his dilemma. But the only one that will be imprinted -- that he will learn -- is the one that delivers for him the pellet. This is a simple example of animal intelligence. It may also unintentionally sum up the state of education throughout much of America today.