Of course most of the things can be found everywhere. After all, humans are humans everywhere. However, different cultures place different emphasis on different things, and it’s the overall picture that is interesing.

I must say I find most things in this article very strange.

I went to school here in Belarus. I can’t imagine a teacher asking which road should be taken and asking to re-think it. Teacher usually just said what we should do, and never pretended to give them choice when there is no choice. (In fact, I think such behaviour would be considered lying.)

And if we were expected to solve a math problem in a specific way, the way we should use was always stated. (Though I must admit, this applied only to match or exact sciences, much less to literature, and never applied to history, where ‘correct’ answers were always given.) And I can’t imagine that arguing about the mark can make it lower either: in fact, I've resorted to it quite a lot.