Not all of us did history GCE/GCSE, unfortunately; and I do think that there is a greater bias against understanding in the prevailing educational climate. Admittedly anecdotal opinion in Oxford and elsewhere is finding each successive year of undergraduates less well-armed for study than the year before, both in knowing the questions to ask and having the cultural background that history courses presuppose (though the latter may simply be cultural change and value neutral).

I do think that there is a cycle of expectation-lowering in the public sector; but while I agree with you that understanding someone else's learning experience and learning from it yourself is probably absorbed osmotically, if teaching (whether from the state or not) doesn't try to encourage it, even on the most unpromising ground, then what can it do?