A little ambling notion

As I read my assigned reading, I think about how school has affected my learning and effected me. To quote Jerry Farber, "History is engrossing, Literature is so beautiful. And school is likely to turn them dull or even ugly." I find this completely true on so many levels. I, myself, often admit that though I didn't go to school very often as a child, I learned more from my studying at home than I ever did at school. I was often much more competent in my "academic skills", although my grades didn't reflect this. I didn't mind being an F student... This way I could study more enthusiastically. I would read text books... similar to the ones I'm having to choke down now. It would be a great venture to be able to study freely, without petty competitiveness, or rewards and punishments. Its taken me years to figure out that being an F student didn't make me lazy or stupid... it showed a stubborn unwillingness to submit to being a slave of the system, so to speak. Skipping school, avoiding it, was my way of teaching myself, in my own time and on my own terms. Learning, actual learning, is self discipline. And what is self discipline, but a way of making yourself happy...