> One of the failings of our educational systems is that we can never teach people "How to think".

Maybe. I think college does a good job of confronting you with ideas and material and environments in which you are prodded into thinking. And several courses, like logic, statistics, and combinatorial math, seemed to be focused purely on doing just that. Sciences, like chemistry and physics, have the same sort of effect, although learning about the way the universe works is their primary goal. The arts (should) do the same sort of service for the other side of the brain.

I see your point -- "how to think" cannot be taught directly. But I don't really see how you can go through the properly chosen college courses and not pick that up.

And thank you for explaining the intrinsic value of learning in a way I couldn't quite manage to.

> One of the most beneficial courses would be to take something along the lines of Effective Communication (written and oral).

My father used to tell me that the two single most important things to learn to survive in the world is the ability to speak well and the ability to write well. I took his word for it at the time; since then, experience has driven that point home time and time again.