Where critical thinking comes to die

In the almost two years that I have been here in Madagascar I have had a number of Malagasy people ask my why I think that he country is so underdeveloped compared to the United States. My answer is always that there are many many reasons including but not limited to; colonialism (particularly by the French), poor soil quality, a dearth of natural resources, and particular cultural traits. But in my opinion one of the most important factors influencing development in Madagascar is the education system.   In the Malagasy education system students learn to memorize, and then memorize some more and as far as I can tell that is pretty much it. There is no problem solving or critical thinking or research or any of the things that, in my opinion, make an American education so valuable. This lack of thinking skills becomes obvious in later life. Many Malagasy people, when faced with a problem that they have not encountered before will have no idea how to go about solving that problem. A recent example that I encountered was in relation to planting rice. One of the main projects many PCVs in Madagascar participate in is training farmers to use an improved system of rice farming. This system involves 5 easy steps and involves almost no additional inputs but can yield up to three times as much rice of the same acreage. Yet it is like pulling teeth to get Malagasy farmers to adopt the SRI system. They encounter what they see as a problem and instead of trying to find a solution to that problem they simply throw there hands up in the air and walk away.   The emphasis on education in the school system is also seen in a lack of creativity in adults and children. There are a number of children who come over to my house on a regular basis to play with my stuff and draw pictures. When they are drawing they will only draw a set number of things - a flower, a house, a car and superman- when I ask them to draw something else they insist that they can not do it. That they don't know how to draw a banana or a boat. That no one has ever taught them how to. There is never an attempt to figure it out on there own. In adult women this lack of creativity is often seen in their cooking. They know how to cook a set number of dishes that their mom's taught them how to make and nothing else. They wont experiment with mixing different ingredients together or trying new ways to do things. For instance omelets with tomatoes and onions are very common, but try making scrambled eggs with a mix of veggies and they are a little freaked out by it. I once had a person ask if the eggs I had made were cow brain (as that is a dish they recognize)   In my opinion this lack of critical thinking, problem solving and creativity is a huge disadvantage in the development game. If a country is going to develop they need to start trying some home grown solutions, but with a population that is taught how to memorize not think, how will they ever be able to do that?