One part I wasn't a huge fan of was the contrast of this:

There is a form of education – increasingly popular over the last few decades – which most values cooperation, collaboration, quietness, sedentariness, empathy, equality, non-competitiveness, conformity, a communal focus, inclusivity, affirmation, inoffensiveness, sensitivity, non-confrontation, a downplaying of physicality, and an orientation to the standard measures of grades, tests, and a closely defined curriculum (one could, with the appropriate qualifications, speak of this as a ‘feminization’ of education).

... with this:

A completely contrasting mode of education, one more typical of traditional – and male-oriented – educational systems, values internalized confidence, originality, agonism, independence of thought, creativity, assertiveness, the mastery of one’s feelings, a thick skin and high tolerance for your own and others’ discomfort, disputational ability, competitiveness, nerve, initiative, imagination, and force of will

It's possible that this is a honest assessment of changed (I don't know enough about the cultural shifts in education), but to me it looks suspiciously like extra applause lights have been sneaked in one of the laundry lists, and extra boo lights have been sneaked in the other.

More specifically, in this case, I don't think that "modern" education downplays creativity and imagination compared to "traditional" education of say a century ago. If anything, modern education seems to praise creativity and imagination that the evil old restrictive education model didn't care enough about.

"There used to be more emphasis on creativity" may true despite current praise of creativity, or it may only be true about higher education and not primary education ... but I also find it pretty likely that those were added to the list as extra applause lights to make the author's preferred side look better.