Is the Great Stagnation Just a 'So-So' Stagnation?

One thing that I don’t get about this is the suggestion that degree attainment is about skill building. I have a masters degree, and my degree was almost entirely knowledge attainment, not skill building. Nothing about that degree was designed to raise my reading skill, it was designed to provide a base level of knowledge that could be built upon in practice.

I dunno, I do occasionally have this fantasy that I’d gone to some advanced prep school where they really did some education to me. But I’m sort of fundamentally anti-authoritarian, so I can’t imagine I would have gotten anything out of it. Can we really teach reading skills above and beyond what someone is inclined to teach themselves? Are there proven methods?