[newvoiceoldphne]

Marketable skills are easy to learn, it's the thinking behind the learning that is tough to get. HOW to think is much more important. And I'm not at all sure that that can be taught.

'Common sense ain't so common' is a trite aphorism, but very true.

[ineedasername]

I think "how to think" can be taught at least a little bit. In mathematics you learn a very formalized method of finding (usually) the single correct answer. In the humanities, with textual analysis, you learn a different type. But it does take practice, and adequate instructors. And of course the average person will never come to it quite as well as someone with the natural aptitude. I occasionally teach a course in informal logic, which is a sort of cross section between rhetoric and logic as applied to both argument construction, deconstruction, & analysis. I definitely see students progress along the way, starting with clumsy stumbling and proceeding to address new novel problems with decent aptitude.