I've done a reasonable amount of teaching, and it's been eye-opening. What seems reasonably simple (or even trivial) can be very difficult for some people. I've seen students (adults and kids) pick basic things up with a minimum of instruction on day 1 of a weekly class, while others are still struggling 8 weeks later.
And as a student, I've learned that something that's reasonably simple for others may be beyond me (for example, drawing is beyond my abilities).
I think that part of our education problem is our optimistic national nature. American optimism is often a huge strength, but in this case, it seems to be driving us into believing things that aren't true --- namely that everyone can learn certain things or learn them at certain ages, or that everyone should go to college.
I tend to agree with you. A lot of my comments are more thinking out loud. I feel a lot of the problem is a result of poor assumptions about the effectiveness of testing. IQ tests for instance test the ability of people to rapidly answer simple questions. These do not test the ability to answer complex questions. Early skill assessments are used to set future expectations.
My interest is in better understanding human behavior and cognitive abilities. Then to apply this understanding to better test these abilities. The final and probably most difficult step would be to make use of this knowledge. My optimism causes me to believe we can at least succeed at the first two, but not necessarily the last part (changing society).
