What does this quote mean exactly? "I never let my schooling get in the way of my education" Mark Twain

Question

I'm not quite sure how to put it in words, help me out!!!

Answer 1

It's like saying "I never let religion get in the way of my faith."

When you formalize things, set down rules, and introduce bureaucracy, it takes away from the true experience.

Answer 2

Mark Twain had some truly great observations on life and his quotes come up regularly . to teach is not necessarily to educate. if you will indulge me, i'll share with you something a friend sent me just recently which puts it rather well i think :
"according to a news report, a certain private girls school recently was faced with a unique problem.
a number of 12 y.o girls were beginning to use lipstick & would put it on in the bathroom. that was fine, but after they put it on they would pres their lips to the mirror leaving dozens of little prints.
every night the cleaner would remove them & the next day the girls would put them back. several memos were posted about this.
finally the principal decided something had to be done.
she called all the girls to the bathroom & met with the cleaner. she explained that all the lip prints were causing a major problem for the cleaner who had to clean the mirrors every night.
to demonstrate how difficult it had been to clean the mirrors, she asked the cleaner to show the girls how much effort was required.
he took out a long-handled squeege, dipped it in the toilet & cleaned the mirror with it.
since then, there have been no lip prints on the mirror.

there are teachers, & then there are educators,"

i hope you liked that.

Answer 3

Schooling (what you are told in school) does not teach you much, and don't let what they tell you interfere with real learning.
He is referring to what is taught in school as being wrong or misleading and Education in this case means what he is learning from non-school sources. He was not a fan of Schools.
As Samuel Clemens (AKA Mark Twain) once wrote: "God Created An Idiot For Practice, Then He Created A School Board"

Answer 4

It means the education Mark Twain received in School was inferior to the education he received in life experience.

Answer 5

Education is not what we get in the schools nowadays. Schols give us bookish knowledge.This knowledge is more than enough to get a certificate with good marks and earn a handsome salary .But life is much above these things. Education is that whaich teaches us how to lead our life. How to react in different situations , respect our elders and lead a respectable life. This is very different from education.
In these lines, its told that normal schooling should not come in the way of education. We should not be so involved in aquiring the bookish knowledge that we forget to get the real education.

Answer 6

Samuel Langhorne Clemens, aka Mark Twain marched up to his step dad when he was age 14 and announced he was ready to go make his way in the world. His step dad didn't stop him. By the time he was 22 he had a long list of experience working different types of jobs, he headed west with his brother to Nevada and the one book he took with him to read by the campfire was... an English dictionary.

Answer 7

I LOVE THAT QUOTE! I always took it to mean that school is NOT the pathway to education ... only a degree. Some of the smartest people I know did not get a degree because they couldn't afford it, but read and studied at their own interest and leisure ... and they are geniuses. Some people I know who went to school forever are the biggest idiots ... go figure.
(School is cool, though ... just do not let it be your only path to a good education :)

Answer 8

Schools teach theories and Ideas, Life teaches reality. In school we learn about the rule of Law, and the process of action in a court room, yet if you actually watch a trial you will see that it is unlike what the book taught you.

Answer 9

In school, u learn only bookish knowledge, but outside school u get the practical and real education of life.

Answer 10

It means he learned more out of school than in it, real life experiences made him an "educated" person, not school

Answer 11

I think it means different things to different people. I think of it more like, the formal public education wants you to think and act in a certain way, and JUST that way. They want you to totally conform to standards.

A true education means you understand those things from formal schooling, and you understand non-traditional viewpoints too, and then choose what to follow. A true education is well-rounded and varies from person-to-person, and can't depend entirely on test scores like formal schooling does.