I also studied independently at a more advanced level than I was supposed to be at. Not sure I follow why this seems quaint or silly to you.

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tbrownaw 8 months ago | parent | next [-]

Half of all people are above average.

(Or maybe a third of all people if you count it as a range rather than a point.)

	▲	rightbyte 8 months ago \| parent [-]
		Only if you assume normal distrubition or similar where median and average are the same.

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grandempire 8 months ago | parent | prev [-]

What did it do for you?

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MattPalmer1086 8 months ago | parent [-]

I enjoyed it, and it gave me confidence that I was capable of doing some interesting things. My schooling wasn't very inspirational.

Still not sure why it seems silly to you.

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grandempire 8 months ago | parent [-]

What seems silly to me is the particular cultural excitement and optimism around education and liberalism, and the way it was manifest in school, that I lived through as a kid and is now dead.

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MattPalmer1086 8 months ago | parent [-]

We may be talking about different eras. I'm Gen X, I don't remember any great excitement or optimism manifested in schools of my time.

Quite the contrary; I think I was one of only two or three people in my year to go on to university. But then I was a huge nerd who was really interested in ideas.

	▲	grandempire 8 months ago \| parent [-]
		Yes I think that’s right. Thanks for sharing. Kids of the 60s-70s who were outsiders because of their academic/nerdy interest became teachers and created a culture with the ideals they thought were missing. And that’s what I experienced.