I agree, the sentence could have been worded better, but the object being described by the following sentence was mental acuity, which would typically be genetic.  I suppose you could make an argument for it being a part of education and that you could sharpen your mental acuity through various methods, but only within a limited range.  You're either born with acuity or you aren't, and it's pretty clear our friend eoakland has little acuity to spare, since he isn't able to comprehend or synthesize what he's read.  To think, people like him are allowed to vote and drive cars, eww.  This is why we can't have nice things in this country.