I think many of the shortcomings of the education system are shortcomings on the part of the academics who design the curriculums. Problem solving in the sense of how to optimally manage our intelligence would be a great thing to teach. Even PhDs don't get taught that, though.

Teaching these areas would be a great start : Cognitive science, decision theory, intelligence research, game theory, behavioral economics, risk management, cognitive bias, and rationalism.

(Wikipedia links on those subjects are here: http://www.videosift.com/video/For-all-my-Athiest-friends-on-The-Sift?loadcomm=1#comment-744091)

I also highly recommend Malcolm Gladwell's Outliers. (People who like reading books on their computer could find the PDF here)

What I mean is that I think these areas are fascinating! Cognitive science, decision theory, intelligence research, game theory, behavioral economics, risk management, cognitive bias, and rationalism.