What a misfortune it is that we should thus be compelled to let our boys' schooling interfere with their education!

Grant Allen, Postprandial Philosophy, 1894

Yeah, that quote is often attributed to Mark Twain, but he stole it. No shame in that. But why am I quoting it after looking it up to make sure I gave the right guy the credit? (I thought Einstein said it. I was wrong. What he said was, "It is not so very important for a person to learn facts. For that he does not really need a college. He can learn them from books. The value of an education in a liberal arts college is not the learning of many facts but the training of the mind to think something that cannot be learned from textbooks." He said it to Thomas Edison in a letter in 1921.)

I am quoting all that to make a point, of course, about the fallacy of confusing official 'education' with real learning. For the one, you need a piece of paper. For the other? You need a head. At least, if you're human.

I am aware that I have an almighty nerve touting the benefits of autodidaticism. I'm the world's most over-educated person. I don't have a PhD¹, but I've studied at, let's see…six different universities on two continents. I've also attended courses, seminars, and other instructional hootenannies at various schools, museums, and other places where thinking-type people gather over a space of more years than you have any right to ask about. So yeah, I'm a book-taught kind of nerd. But this is largely because, when I want to know something, I ask: where can I find out? And, can I get somebody else to pay for it?

Books are useful. The internet is way useful, if you know how to use it. (Snopes and other research fora helped me avoid the pitfalls of the fake Einstein and Twain quotes.) Finding the right go-to person is even more useful. Best of all is experience, when are lucky enough to get it. Nothing beats some first-hand knowledge. The trick, of course, is combining all that into a working tool. And that's where your head comes in.

I read a lot of old books. It's a habit of mine. That's why I have a mental list of people from the past I think were really intelligent. One of them was Ben Franklin, no surprise there. But you know somebody else I think was really smart? Davy Crockett. Crockett, like Abraham Lincoln (another genius), grew up on a frontier where his 'education' was learning how to hunt, trap, shoot, and survive attacks by hostile people. But he wanted him some book learnin', so he did a deal with the schoolteacher. Davy supplied the teacher with meat, the teacher helped him learn to read. We are grateful, because Crockett used this knowledge to become a Congressman (he was a principled one) and write his memoirs. Like Lincoln, he worked hard for his reading and writing, and he put them to good use. Both of those men were every bit as intelligent as Thomas Jefferson – and Lincoln, at least, wrote just as well.

My grandfather was a very intelligent man, if a bit unusual in his sense of humour. He was also a man of integrity, generosity, and almost boundless compassion for his fellow humans. My grandfather had about three years of schooling. His reading matter mostly consisted of the Bible (Authorised Version), his Sunday School quarterly, and the Sparta Expositor. (I think he also read the Nashville Tennessean.) But wisdom came from him, and I regard the memory of what I learned from him every bit as highly as I treasure the memories of educational journeys I took in Germany, Romania, the UK, and Greece. What I learned from my grandfather I would not have known, had he not taught it to me. This is the way to 'pay it forward', people: share what you've learned.

Now, where am I going with all this? And what does it have to do with writing? Well, sometimes on this site, as on all the other sites out there, we get a bit stuffy about our credentials. 'So-and-so studied at Oxbridge,' we say. Or, 'That man/woman is the foremost expert on…' Bosh. h2g2's Guide to Life, the Universe, and Everything is an autonomous collective in which all contribute their expertise, and all discover that…guess what? We have expertise.

You people have absolutely no idea how much I've learned from you in the last ten years. My brainscape is different because of you. I want to take a moment and say, I'm grateful for that. The memories of what you've shared with me are in my personal memory palace, right along with my grandfather's life lessons and the ruins of Sarmizegetusa. So thanks. And we just keep ploughing on – we haven't got to the end of the tale yet. Not by a long chalk.

So, does it matter that we're meticulous with our research? Yes. Does spelling count? Sure it does. As my piano teacher and mentor Miss Lindquist used to say – and she was a great autodidact, as well as a graduate of the University of Pittsburgh – 'Communication is doing your best to make sure your thought gets from your mind to the other person's.' Spelling helps. Good syntax helps. All that stuff that's in books helps. But you know what? The most important quality is what's in the writer's heart and mind – the sum total of learning, experience, and reflection. That can't be taught. It has to be lived.

Writing Right with Dmitri Archive

Dmitri Gheorgheni

01.02.16 Front Page

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