Can I talk about this from the other direction? One of the things that I got drilled on in school was that in the real world, good communication skills are critical. However, after a bit less than a decade in financial services, I have come to the conclusion that the real take away is that understanding poor communication is critical, more critical than any other skill in your entire life (I suppose, unless you are at the absolute top of the hill from which shit rolls down).

I think we do children a disservice by asking them to read great works of modern literature. They should probably spend their time reading Chaucer in the original middle english and puzzling out half translated foreign language classics. Basically anything Shakespeare and up is too easy to understand if you really want to hone your abilities.