Conversation Skills

I realized last night that good conversational skills are essential to enjoyable conversations. (You might say, "Well of course.) However, I had always assumed that as people get older, and as long as they are not completely socially inept, they will have basic conversation skills. It is true that in regard to conversation, some things need to be taught, such as, do not interrupt. Yet, while we teach that to our children, how often do we follow this rule as adults? It seems to me that people are often so eager to proffer their own ideas and opinions, that they do not listen very well to what is said by the person they are conversing with. As adults we sometimes interrupt others, but we don't seem to think anything of it. Someone says something that we want to respond to, and we jump in with our agreement or disagreement, whether or not the other person is finished speaking. As a result, people are talking over each other, and not REALLY listening to anything that anyone says. I have seen this on the news a great deal. It always drives me crazy when to "professional individuals" that are debating a topic are constantly interrupting one another rather than having a polite conversation where they respond to the statement of the other individual. Granted, there are two sides to this issue. It you are making a statement, you need to not make it a dialogue so that the other person has the opportunity to respond to what you have said.
How do we teach these skills to our children and, frankly quite often, to ourselves? I'm beginning to believe that we need to teach our children to first be kind, caring, and interested in what other people have to say, and the rest will naturally follow. If we would first listen to others, perhaps we would be less concerned with jumping in with our own opinions.