Mr Antolini in 'The Catcher in the Rye'

"I'm not trying to tell you," he said, "that only educated and scholarly men are able to contribute something valuable to the world. It's not so. But I do say that educated and scholarly men, if they're brilliant and creative to begin with - which unfortunately, is rarely the case - tend to leave infinitely more valuable records behind them than men do who are merely brilliant and creative. They tend to express themselves more clearly, and they usually have a passion for following their thoughts through to the end. And - most important - nine times out of ten, they have more humility than the unscholarly thinker."

J.D. Salinger, 'The Catcher in the Rye' (1951)

I've been coming back to this passage for years. It could sound like a counter-argument to Illich's "deschooling" - yet Illich was every bit the scholar. His response would probably be that education systems are destructive of the kind of learning Mr Antolini has in mind. Also, I remember being told to push on through and endure the arbitrary unpleasantnesses of school because one day I would reach an academic elysium which would feel like home - whereas my experience of Oxford was every bit as troubling and unhomely, if for different reasons, as my earlier education.