Autodidacticism
From ArticleWorld
Autodidacticism is the self-education of a person who is highly motivated to excel in education and often has a passion for the subject he or she is pursuing. An autodidact can become motivated to self-learn at any time and has often been taught through conventional means before moving on to self-education. Often, autodidacts are concerned with stressing sensitivity, intelligence and self-awareness.
Quotes of famous autodidacts
Mark Twain once said of contemporary education, “I never let schooling get in the way of my education.” In addition, Albert Einstein, another famous self-learner, is quoted as saying, “ The only thing that interferes with my learning is my education” and, “It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education.” He felt that self-educating helped him arrive at his Theory of Relativity. A contemporary autodidact, Stanley Kubrick, stated “…I never learned anything at all in school and didn’t read a book for my pleasure until I was 19 years old.”
Jacques Ranciere
In his writing of The Ignorant Schoolmaster, Ranciere discusses the self-education of Joseph Jacotot. Jacotot, a philosopher of education, discovered that he could teach others things he didn’t know. For example, he was able to teach Flemish speaking people how to speak French. He did not know, himself, how to speak Flemish.
Famous autodidacts
The careers of autodidacts vary. Often and autodidact takes on a profession that revolves around one or more of the subjects that he or she has learned through self-education.
- Leonardo DaVinci
- Benjamin Frankiln
- Sir Isaac Newton
- Moshe Feldenkrais
- Joseph Campell
- Robert Burns
- Andrew Carnegie
- Abraham Lincoln
- Ernest Hemingway