I am not especially gifted and I learned pretty much everything I know outside of school. I can't even really credit school with teaching me the basics since it was my parents that taught me how to read. Now, I'll be the first to admit that my grammatical skills aren't always the best but even after essentially skipping class throughout high school eventually failing all my classes until I dropped out, I still tested in the top 1-10% in reading comprehension and english and better in science for college entrance... High school and middle school are largely just day care and even college while awesome if you have real academic interests you want to explore is going to become less relevant as the internet continues to permeate our lives. The best thing college does is provide a place to interact with peers who have the same interestsand it charges a pretty steep price for this service.
Seems like we need more of an apprenticeship structure that begins in middle and high school and far fewer people going to college -unless the real point of college is to keep them out of the work force and unemployment numbers.