The speed with which our predispositions evolve seems to be incredibly slow, and it is thought there have been no major changes in the last 30,000 years. By melding neurological discoveries in an evolutionary framework researchers can see how within a single generation the influences of millions of years of evolution mingle with the priorities of a particular culture. We are enormously empowered by an array of evolved predispositions which enable us to adapt to vastly different sorts of circumstances, yet these evolved predispositions inhibit us as well. The relationship between nature and nurture is well summarised by the English Professor of psychobiology Henry Plotkin in his 1996 book Evolution in Mind. Nurture can only be fully understood in light of historical causes.
Nature has nurture.
This goes a long way towards explaining just why humans learn the way they do. Now, consider what we know about the brain and effective learning in light of the many systems developed over the past 150 years to organise individuals within an industrial economy. Prosperity meant organising people into factories where their broadly based skills were not needed and very quickly in support of this school systems were built which emphasised functional transactional skills that only utilised a small proportion of each individual brain. Such underused brains had to find their satisfaction elsewhere, and factory owners were quick to replace intrinsic motivation with extrinsic reward. Things are now very different.