What brings the two edges together is simply the idea that play and exploration is central to learning. With those as the pillars of education philosophy rather than starting from the factory, you get some interesting effects.
Exploration: Discovering new things... learning happens at the bounds of exploration. Repetition is counter to this; skill-level-matched challenges enforces this (i.e. accelerations should happen.)
Play: Simulating, trying, interaction with other people, being creative, having fun. We learn more when engaged, being engaged is a key part of play. Creativity slowly dissolves through schooling with a rigid supression of instincts and innovations. Team and project-based work, problem solving, social experimentation are all natural to play. Pure repetition is rare in play; typically signficant variations exist from cycle to cycle.
So you see the factory stuff now starting to wiggle towards play on a feature level without the spirit of it. Even the complained about spiral curriculums resemble play where kids will pick-up new skills integrate them into their play cycle and slowly retire older ways as competence with the new increases.
