At the lesson comes the opportunity for periodic evaluation and adjustment. The cost of proficiency can be prodigious, naturally. A factory which produces Fords will never by mere reallocation generate a flock of Ferraris. Proficiency needs to be designed almost from the ground up if it is intended to apply to the activities of education on the present American academic scene. Fourth, for those who can't or won't measure up, there should be a feasible alternative path to productive citizenship that does not carry the badges of failure or rejection.
Academic proficiency is nowhere near the only basis for a meaningful life.
We might study the European practice of a kind of academic triage, and do it early enough to forestall the cost of exposure to higher academia with its attendant inclination in the direction of scholarship.