promote a creative "free thinking" environment for learning.

That's fine for later in life like high school and college age kids, but for young elementary age kids, I don't believe it works.

I haven't studied a ton of early childhood development , but my understanding is, the way young children's brains are wired, they do much better with the wrote/memorization type learning early on while they are still trying to grasp more complex concepts. Their brains need a solid foundation of memorized data before they progress to a more free thinking stage.

Basically, they don't have the tools at that age for free thinking and it is more confusing to them then it is helpful.