Buccaneer Scholar

My wife had borrowed a book called Secrets of a Buccaneer Scholar by James Marcus Bach so I started flipping through it and was intrigued by his statement that:

School is temporary.  Education is not.  If you want to prosper in life: find something that fascinates you and jump all over it.  Don't wait for someone to teach you; your enthusiasm will attract teachers to you.  Don't worry about diplomas or degrees; just get so good that no one can ignore you.

I have some hesitation to fully accept this but in general I agree that everyone should work on learning through their whole life and that if you don't know something then find the resources necessary to learn about it.


As a homeschooler I was more interested in his later statement:

I don't seek the destruction of schools.  I am out to dismantle something else: the popular belief that school is the only route to a great education, and that the best students are those who passively accept the education their schools offer.

There are so many different learning styles and teaching styles that it is crazy to think that a single approach that is used by so many schools is going to work.  Hammering away at multiplication tables and rote memorization might help you memorize something but is it learning?  I think Bach's approach has value but I think he falls into the same trap that he criticizes in that just because it worked for him doesn't mean it will work for everyone.  He does admit this but he comes across as beating his chest a little to strongly for my liking.