About this quote

Formal schooling gives facts and rules, but some lessons only arrive when you actually try them. You remember those lessons because you felt the consequences, not because you read about them. Ask yourself what skills you keep putting off practicing because you believe a class will do the job. Pick one thing this week to attempt badly and learn from the awkwardness; you'll notice the gap between theory and real knowing.

When to use it

• At work after my first project stalled because I couldn't handle client pressure, I told my manager, "Education is an admirable thing..." to explain why leadership was something I had to practice on the job.
• In the lab after ruining a set of samples, I said to my lab mate, "Education is an admirable thing..." since pipetting and troubleshooting only stick after you mess them up a few times.
• As a new parent, after nothing in the parenting books calmed our baby, I told my partner, "Education is an admirable thing..." to explain that soothing a child was a skill we had to learn by doing.
• At the pottery wheel when my first bowl collapsed, I joked to the instructor, "Education is an admirable thing..." because the wheel taught what the manual could not.