Self Taught or School Taught?

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I'm self taught. HECK, I could teach COLLEGES a lot! Most teachers see it only as a job, and do poorly at it. In the US, they have a saying:

Those that can, DO! Those that CAN'T TEACH! And there is MY addition.....And they CAN'T TEACH!

Steve

Excerpt from my resume:

Education: School of Hard Knocks, University of Life

Organised education (Primary and Secondary that is) is one of the greatest cons perpetuated on society IMHO.

I would go to university but the subjects that I would have to study that I don't want to have always turned me off going.

I'm much happier educating myself about the things I want to learn ! !!

Never really thought much on it, but I'd have to say I learned at least as much on my own as from a classroom.

I was, and still am, that kid that read the entire series of encyclopedias just for fun. I'll never forget when we were asked to research and write a one page report on how microwave ovens function. Coincidentally, I'd just read about that in depth not a week or two before. I just started writing and my teacher asked what I was doing. I explained to her I already knew. I'm not so sure if she didn't believe me. Or just didn't want me to be exclusive to the rest that were expected to make a trip to the library.

I still wrote it on my own. Hehe.

But most of what I 'learned' is pretty useless for practical living. But sometimes it can be.

I did well in school because I liked to read. I still do. Reading and researching things and gaining knowledge is a special interest of mine.

I was lucky enough to have my dad teach me most of what I didn't get from school by just answering all the questions I had about science or whatever.

College of self and college of old Sci-Fi. Trying to be what I'm not during high led me to this low.

Around age 15, I started programming in C as a hobby. I credit this self-teaching with getting me an A in the two C and C++ computer classes I have taken so far in college. Also, self-teaching in math and psychology over last summer and the winter break, helped me to pass classes in those subjects, including Calculus A.

Hmm... out of the things that I can claim to know somewhat well...:

Persian: school-taught
English: self-taught
French: private teacher-taught
Japanese: private teacher-taught
Maths: school-taught
Chemistry: self-taught
Physics: self-taught
Geology: school-taught
Biology: self-taught
Art: self-taught
Playing music: private teacher-taught
Writing music: self-taught
HTML, Adobe Photoshop, etc: self-taught
Psychology: self-taught

self-taught: 8 (57%)
school-taught: 3 (21.5%)
private teacher-taught: 3 (21.5%)
total: 14 (100%)

I am mostly self-taught. Up through 6th grade I attended a small private religious school where for a good potion of the classes I was reading story books because I had finished my assignments between classes and didn't notice the next one starting. They stopped trying to get my attention after a while. I would have all my homework done before I got home.
I was home schooled from 7th through high school. I had a planner and some normal text books, but most of my classes were done by me getting books and reading a lot. The downside is I never really did much with the subjects that I wasn't interested in. I love learning things so I would read sections of the encyclopedia and dictionary.
Currently attending college. I love learning things, but I grow tired of attending the classes and get generally frustrated and end up not doing any of the reading or work for the class about 3/4 of the way through. Lectures really depend on the teacher. Some of them I see as just useless if you are reading the book. It just seems like a waste of time. Others are great and don't just spit up the book info, but rather use the material and apply it in useful and interesting ways. I love attending those lectures and soaking up even more knowledge. I just wish that I could think up my questions faster and wasn't afraid of asking them.

Self taught really I suppose. I never attended school that frequently and then after I left, I taught myself the A-level maths curriculum so that I could get into university.

The whole point of university is that you teach yourself really. Sure, you are only examined in very certain specific things but the whole idea of university is that you learn and read around the curriculum and follow your interests. Saying that; I do pick up on a lot heuristics and general ideas from lectures but in general, I prefer to become familiar with most material before lectures so that I get the most value from the lectures.

Rote learning: school
Connecting the dots: self taught
What works: school of hard knocks

In college, I just sit in the lectures without taking notes or anything like that, and I could explain the content like I've been doing it my whole life. Only one teacher has called me out on it, he asked me why I wasn't taking notes and if I had a photographic memory, I just responded yes, and he went on lecturing.

I hate school though, I just had my first days of classes for the summer semester, and I almost dropped all of them. Then I remembered that's how I feel every semester, and if I was going to drop out, six months before graduation is probably a little too late.