Riet, I totally agree (and completely understand) that there is a finite amount of time in the classroom and I already fear that many teachers just teach children enough to meet the syllabus because there's just no time for student-directed learning. Most teachers already skip a lot of the PE and Creative Arts syllabus because parents don't care if their children can explain the way artists create different feelings in art, as long as they get good NAPLAN results.
Maybe the curriculum should focus on integrating the KLAs so that teachers teach more efficiently. This would leave more class time open for creativity, more tasks where students get to choose what to do. One of my tutors mentioned that there's very little space for teachers these days to teach dinosaurs, which everyone used to do back in the day because kids love it and need no encouragement to explore it.
If we try to make people self-directed learners rather than stuff them full of information, this sets them up for being adults that want to work in innovative and creative ways. Maybe that would improve our technological and cultural standing?