Basically: you can't teach people to think without giving them some facts and ideas to think with. It's like trying to teach woodworking without giving the students any wood.
No, but you could teach them rapid skill acquisition first, then the basics of woodworking, and they'd be off. They could then apply the same approach to machining. Instead, people absorb the meta-skill through osmosis. The first thing we should teach, starting with reading, is how to learn.