[jojoo]

> The trick (as with almost any other field)? > Practice, practice, practice. That's it. There is no magic sauce there.

Practice isn't the only ingredient to the magic sauce. The learning input also has to be in a form which the learner can understand. If i tell you to practice a backflip until you can do it you'll likely injure yourself - or walk away, frustrated - before you can do it. If i would analyze the and split up the movement and teach it to you in little steps you will most likely learn it faster. If we could use a trampolin you'd learn even faster.

How to break things down into little steps is one of the most important parts of teaching. The other one - you're correct there - is how to foster motivation.

> It's sad that so few kids read at their grade level but it's not because of sub-optimal teaching methods that much is for sure.

My observation as a teacher is, that some are frustrated. Maybe they hit a wall (a steep learning curve) with their learning and weren't motivated enough to push through. More motivation could help, but so could a learning design that doesn't have walls/steep learning curves.

[ThomPete]

For most children it's practice. A few are so intelligent that they teach themselves and a few are left behind.

But to most people and to any extent we can talk about education, in general, I think my point stands but i agree there are of course also other things.