Unschooling owes schooling nothing

I found this quote yesterday evening in the Writer magazine (January 2011 issue). It's an interview called The Love of a Good Story with Lisa Cron, story consultant and agent.

Think about it. Have you ever gone into a bookstore, pulled a book off the shelf,glanced at the first page and thought, "You know, this is kind of dull. I can't tell what it's about, but I'm sure the author tried really, really hard, and probably has something important to say, so I'm going to buy it, read it, and recommend it to all my friends."
Nope you're gloriously heartless.
I'm betting you never give the author's hard work or good intention a second thought. And that's as it should be. As a reader, you owe the writer absolutely nothing. You read their book solely at you own pleasure, where it stands or falls on its own merit. If you don't like it, you simply slip it back onto the shelf and slide out another.

It's with this kind of attitude that I approach unschooling.

Browse. Discard if we don't like it. Embrace what excites us.

Complete freedom. We owe the Gods of Education, the Institutions of Learning, the Masters of Curriculum absolutely nothing.

Think of your life- and the times you were made to learn things you didn't care about. How much of any of it do you remember today?
For my part, I can say none of it.

I don't even consider what I was doing then education- it was school.

Reminds me of a quote by Mark Twain;

I never let my schooling get in the way of my education.

Education that is uniquely shaped from one's own intrinsic motivation is true education- at least the education that we care most about.