Amid a deepening literacy crisis, there’s been a focus on how to close the achievement gap, but Natalie Wexler sees the key problem undermining the American educational system a little differently.

Knowledge is power—but what happens when you're having trouble picking up new ideas? It wasn't all that long ago in human history that our access to facts, figures, and statistics was very limited.

When facing new situations or problems, humans typically rely on knowledge they acquired in the past. Specifically, ...