What are we doing WRONG? Better yet, how do we do it right?

After watching this business oriented TED talk http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrkrvAUbU9Y, I have to wonder where we are headed in education. I guess I was not surprised to find that the greater the reward, the less motivation there was to complete the task effectively. I know that I work best without a "have to" pressure. I am a creative thinker, but I know that I cannot think most freely when I know that there is a time limit. Give me a task and let me work through it on my time, I am usually successful at finding something that works. On the other hand, if I am forced to deal with that task in a "you need to do this or else" and do it NOW mode, I am usually going to draw a blank. In fact, with that pressure, I will find myself trying to think through EVERY single idea and not fully exploring any of the possibilities in depth. I am more than willing to help colleagues, but hope that they give me the task and let me ponder-- at least most of the time.
I came to education as the high ability teacher for our corporation's elementary schools twenty-seven years ago. My job was to encourage students to use divergent thinking. I knew that often times that was not going to fit my time frame in class and allowing that freedom was counter to what the students had been taught in school up to that point. It was hard to undo the thought "there is a right answer to everything" and you must do it NOW!
When I first moved into the regular classroom, I brought those skills I had taught my high ability students with me. I know that my students in those early years were more creative thinkers than my current students. Over the years, I have fallen into the trap of following a set of standards and a textbook to meet those standards. My own creativity has suffered, but the most sad news within that scenario is that my students have become little parrots. They can tell me exactly what I want them to (usually), but they often cannot solve a problem on their own. I really do need to let them develop their wings and move back to my own foundation. What good is education when it only teaches the material information and not how to apply it? Or even to find new information on their own?
Now that I think about it, that nest really isn't where the students need to stay for life. Let's fly!