How do you buy Legos? As a kit or just a box of bricks?

The process of #education asks the same question. If the bricks are analogies for bits of knowledge, how are they being packaged? Are the students taught a wide variety of knowledge or a set of focused standards? In my state, the standards are worded "the student will be able to...". In short, the students can assemble the bricks into the kit design.

But where is the innovation and creativity necessary for technical and social growth to be found? We claim 'student-centered' #learning, but is our #curriculum designed to encourage individual play with a box of bricks? Or are the (state) assessments judging the outcomes with the kit instructions in hand?