An autodidact is one who is SELF-TAUGHT.
Always having hated school, I am instantly attracted to this word. I'm attracted to the sound of this word, and needless to say, its meaning.
It doesn't sound like what it means. It sounds dictatorial. It sounds didactic. I'm sure 'didactic' is related, although I think of being didactic as being bossy and rigid, rather than quietly learning things for oneself.
But so when I feel I'm letting myself off the hook by learning things on my own, rather than subjecting myself to a didactic teacher, I now can describe the course I wish to follow, the path I wish to go down, the trip to the bookstore and library and Internet I wish to take as being due to the fact that I am being autodidactic.
I've been called a lot of things in my life, but never this.
I may wish to send out a tidy announcement to friends and foes, informing them that they may add to their list of things they can call me, should the need arise. AUTODIDACTIC.
Feel free to do the same.
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