I don't disagree that for many traditional lectures in a school are not good teaching tools. I suggest the real world is more difficult than you would like it to be, here here is a counter anecdote for you:

I know a "Child A". His attends an "open" school where rather than lectures and lessons the students are given the freedom to (as you put it) "be inquisitive about everything around him" They have all the opportunities they want to figure out how the things they encounter in their daily life work.

In this particular case the parent of "Child A" has a low grade personality disorder, which this "Child A" seems to share. Rather than taking apart the "black boxes" of life he spends his time downloading porn from the internet and playing video games. He has good verbal skills but writes like someone half his age. This "Child A" gets no guidance or direction from his open school. He gets none at home because his parent has their own problems.

So is "Child A" going to be an engineer? Maybe not.