The Aviator; High School Drop Out

Since I've always been a big Howard Hughes buff, I found this pretty interesting; from Brian's Education Blog regarding Hughes' education:

Education: Hughes attended private school in Boston, where he was better at golf than classwork. He was attending Thacher School in California when his mother died. In California, Hughes spent time with his uncle, Rupert, who inspired his later interest in filmmaking. Hughes never graduated from high school. Nonetheless, his father arranged for him to sit in on classes at Cal Tech by donating money to the school. Afterward, Howard returned to Houston and enrolled at Rice Institute (now Rice University). Howard, Sr. died suddenly a few weeks after his son turned eighteen. Young Howard inherited much of the family estate and dropped out of Rice.

Maybe one of the reasons I've always admired the genius Hughes is because of his contrarian nature. He always knew what he wanted and was determined to do it or get it and he did. He didn't need school! That's not to say he didn't get an education...duh! He educated himself. He obviously had a voracious aptitude for learning. He outgrew school early on. It was probably too boring for him. Had he been forced to endure school, he probably would have been stifled and maybe less creative.

This is one of my criticisms of gov't schools. Brilliant students may not have the opportunity to excel because the teacher can't depart from the teaching of the greater group (class). Individual tutoring is always far better because the student can learn at his own speed. It's my observation that this is the reason so many home educated kids far excel gov't educated (indoctrinated?) kids. Once a student has mastered reading and has a craving to learn, the motivated student can learn on his own...like Hughes!