"Self-education is, I firmly believe, the only kind of education there is." - Isaac Asimov

Technically, I don't agree with this quote. There are all kinds of ways that education, teaching, learning, and schooling take place where external pressures or motivators supersede the self, where submission to power or authority is at the heart of what is learned.

But philosophically, I do agree with it.  Perhaps my version would be, "self-education is the only kind of education that really matters."  Not as memorable as Asimov's quote, though, and I'm guessing that was his actual intent.

A healthy society needs healthy thinkers, with each informing and supporting the other. The growing of a next generation self-directing, knowledgeable, critical thinkers should be one of the main goals of the current one. We appreciate the need for each generation to build their own strength and understanding, to help them do so and to give them wisdom along the way. It is both selfless and selfish: we know that it is only by encouraging their agency that we will continue to be able to build a society that we want to live in.

It is scary to think of the inevitable downward social spiral that takes place when selfishness and narcissism demand education by submission.