I highly recommend this fine post on why “Being educated is all about half guessing”. If all we can do is regurgitate facts that we’ve memorized somewhere along the way, we’re crippled in the fact of the new and unexpected. The people that really make a difference in the world can navigate the unknown with a combination of knowledge and inference and educated guessing.
It’s been interesting as we’ve visited a zillion colleges this summer, which schools are helping students learn to navigate the unknown, and which are turning out editors for textbook companies :)