12 chosen

Everyone knows that learning on your own is very difficult. It’s much easier when you have teachers and mentors who will explain everything, help and support. But truly talented people are not afraid of difficulties. Therefore, history knows many examples of great self-taught people. Next week is the birthday of just such a nugget - Ivan Petrovich Kulibin. He was born 280 years ago, April 21, 1735. Let's remember him and other talented self-taught people and think about what we can learn from them.

Ivan Kulibin

Son of a Nizhny Novgorod tradesman Ivan Kulibin Since childhood, I have been making some ingenious devices. As an adult, he became interested in creating watch mechanisms. His most famous work is a unique pocket watch, which contained a miniature musical apparatus and a tiny mechanical theater with moving figures. But despite all this, he did not have a systematic education, he did not know much, so each time he had to “reinvent the wheel” from scratch.

The talented self-taught man was invited to St. Petersburg, where he headed a mechanical workshop at the Academy of Sciences and supervised the production of machine tools, astronomical and navigation instruments. He developed a project for a single-arch bridge across the Neva, figured out how to use mirrors to illuminate the dark passages of the Tsarskoye Selo Palace, and invented a watership - a vessel capable of going against the current, using its own power. Unfortunately, not all of his inventions were brought to life.

I believe that Kulibin was guided in life by the following principle: “If there is something missing in the world, it must be invented!”

Heinrich Schliemann

Heinrich Schliemann Born into the family of a poor rural pastor, from the age of 14 he worked as a merchant, then was a cabin boy on a ship, and then a courier in Holland. Work did not prevent him from studying foreign languages ​​on his own. He became fluent in Dutch, English, French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese and Russian. He called his passion for learning languages ​​“morbid” and wrote that he could speak 15 languages ​​fluently.

After that, he moved to Russia, became rich, then went to America. And at the age of 45 he suddenly decided to devote his life to archeology, moved to Greece and began searching for the legendary Troy. The excavated ancient city with many ancient treasures made Schliemann a world-famous amateur archaeologist.

What can we learn from his example? Don't be afraid to do what interests you. At the age of forty, few people dare to master the profession of an archaeologist.

Konstantin Tsiolkovsky

Tsiolkovsky I grew up as an ordinary active child: I loved to play with friends and go sledding in the winter. After one of his walks, ten-year-old Kostya caught a cold and contracted scarlet fever, and as a result partially lost his hearing. It became impossible to study at the gymnasium - he simply did not listen to the teachers. As a result, he was expelled for poor academic performance. I had to learn on my own.

However, Tsiolkovsky coped with this perfectly. He passed the exams to become a teacher and was engaged in his own scientific research. Although systematic education was sometimes lacking, isolation from the scientific environment also took its toll. For example, he wrote a paper on the kinetic theory of gases, not knowing that it had already been discovered for a quarter of a century.

But, who knows, perhaps systemic education would have killed the dreamer in him, and his fellow skeptics would not have allowed him to even mentally go into space. Perhaps it was precisely because of his hearing loss that he became the founder of theoretical astronautics. He dreamed of iron birds - heavier-than-air aircraft, interplanetary travel and orbital stations. Unfortunately, it was not possible to realize all these ideas during the scientist’s lifetime. But later many of his ideas found application in rocket science and astronautics. If there were no Tsiolkovsky, there would be no Korolev and Gagarin.

What can you learn from Tsiolkovsky? Perhaps his secret is that he believed in his dreams and did not give up in the face of difficulties.

Thomas Edison

A Edison at one time he said this: “I was able to become an inventor because I was bad at school.” He studied not only poorly, but also for a short time - only two months. He did not listen to the teacher at all, for which he constantly ridiculed and called the child names. It ended with Thomas's mother transferring him to home schooling. And, apparently, not in vain. At home, the child revealed his talents. He read a lot and constantly experimented. At first, of course, they are quite wild. They say that a boy once fed a neighbor girl worms. Not out of harm, of course. He simply believed that birds fly because they eat worms. So I decided to test this theory experimentally.

Probably, if he had been in school, the neighbor girl would have avoided "worm diet" But Thomas's restlessness and his habit of giving up everything for the sake of an interesting idea ultimately served humanity well. During his life, he received more than 4,000 patents and gave the world a huge number of inventions.

What does Edison's story teach us? If something doesn’t work out for you, don’t give up on yourself—it’s better to try changing your approach.

Coco Chanel

However, why are we talking only about men? Among women there were also great self-taught people. A striking example - Coco Chanel. An orphan and a self-taught seamstress, she began by selling clothes in a store and singing in a cabaret. She said: “Nobody taught me anything. I had to figure it out on my own.” But she had something that education does not provide - a bold, fresh and unexpected way of looking at things. She showed that beautiful clothes don't have to be uncomfortable. And her discoveries such as a bag on a chain, a fitted jacket and a little black dress changed the fashion world forever. And maybe the world in general, allowing women to be more daring in their choice of clothing. It’s not for nothing that Chanel is called one of the 100 most influential people of the 20th century.

Sciences nourish youths,
Joy is served to the old,
In a happy life they decorate,
Take care in case of an accident.

(M. V. Lomonosov)

An educated person is not just a person who has a diploma of completed education. This concept is multifaceted and multifaceted, consisting of many criteria that are formed throughout the life of an individual.

Pages of history

What does an educated person mean? Surely many of us have asked this question sooner or later. To answer it, you need to turn to history. Namely, to those days when humanity began to make progress in the development of civilization.

Everything was created and done gradually. Nothing appears immediately, with a wave of the mighty hand of the Creator. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was God.” Communication, gestures, signs, sounds arose. It is from these times that the concept of education should be considered. People acquired a common language, an initial knowledge base, which they passed on to children from generation to generation. Man made efforts to develop writing and speech. Rising from these sources, the river of time has brought us to the present. There were many meanders in the bed of this river, incredible work was invested and colossal work was done. But still, this river brought us to the life as we see it now. Books have preserved and brought to us everything that man has created over the centuries. We draw knowledge from these sources and become educated people.

An educated person: concept, criteria, aspects

The interpretation of this term is ambiguous; researchers offer many definitions and variations. Some believe that an educated person is an individual who has graduated from an educational institution and undergone comprehensive training in a certain field of knowledge. For example, these are doctors, teachers, professors, cooks, builders, archaeologists, managers and other specialists. Others argue that, in addition to state-commercial education, a person must also have social, life experience gained in travel, trips, and in communicating with people of different ethnic groups, classes and levels. However, such an interpretation is incomplete, since an educated person is a person of certain moral principles who has managed to achieve something in his life thanks to his knowledge, erudition, culture and determination. From all this we conclude that an educated person is not only the smartest person, but also a person with a capital P. Therefore, most researchers give a more precise description of this term. They believe that an educated person is an individual who is offered by civilization itself. He has cultural and life experience, historically accumulated in the process of development and formation of culture, industry, industry, etc.

The image of an educated person consists of many criteria and personality traits:

• Availability of education.
• Language skills.
• Culture of behavior.
• Expanded horizons.
• Erudition.
• Wide vocabulary.
• Erudition.
• Communication skills.
• Thirst for knowledge.
• Eloquence.
• Flexibility of mind.
• Ability to analyze.
• The desire for self-improvement.
• Determination.
• Literacy.
• Good manners.
• Tolerance.

The role of education in human life

An educated person strives for knowledge for orientation in the world. It is not so important for him to know how many elements are in the periodic table, but he needs to have a general understanding of chemistry. In every field of knowledge, such a person navigates easily and naturally, understanding that single accuracy in absolutely everything is impossible. This allows you to see the world from a different angle, navigate space, and makes life bright, rich and interesting. On the other hand, education acts as the enlightenment of everyone, the endowment of knowledge to be able to distinguish reality from imposed opinion. An educated person does not succumb to the influence of sectarians or advertising gimmicks, since he constantly analyzes what he sees and hears, forming the only correct decision about the reality of what is happening. With the help of education, an individual achieves his goals, improves himself and expresses himself. Thanks to reading, an erudite person listens to his inner world, finds important answers, subtly feels the world, becomes wise and erudite.

The Importance of School Education

The first stage in the formation of each individual as an “educated person” is the primary educational institution, namely school. There we get the basics of knowledge: we learn to read, write, draw, and think clearly. And our future development as a full-fledged representative of society largely depends on how much we assimilate this initial information. From birth, parents develop a child's thirst for knowledge, explaining the importance of education in life. Thanks to the school, the abilities of each student are revealed, a love of reading is instilled, and the foundations are laid in society.

School is the foundation for the development of every educated person. It solves a number of important problems.

1. Primary education of a person, the transfer of social, life, scientific experience in significant areas, historically accumulated by civilization.
2. Spiritual and moral education and personal development (patriotism, religious beliefs, family values, culture of behavior, understanding of art, etc.).
3. Preservation and strengthening of health, both physical and mental, without which a person will not be able to self-realize.

Self-education and social, life experience are not enough to become educated, therefore the role of school in the life of a modern individual is invaluable and irreplaceable.

The role of books in education

Currently, teachers perceive the image of an intellectual as the ideal of an educated person, to which every student, student, and adult should strive. However, this quality is not a priority or mandatory.

How do we imagine an educated person?

Each of us has our own on this topic. For some, an educated person is one who graduated from school. For others, these are people who have acquired a specialty in a particular field. Still others consider all smart people, scientists, researchers, and those who read a lot and educate themselves, to be educated. But education is the basis of all definitions. It radically changed life on Earth, gave us a chance to realize ourselves and prove to ourselves that everything depends on a person. Education gives you the chance to take a step into another world.

At each stage of personality development, a person perceives the concept of education differently. Children and students are sure that this is simply the smartest person who knows and reads a lot. Students look at this concept from an educational point of view, believing that after graduating from an educational institution, they will become educated people. The older generation perceives this image more broadly and thoughtfully, understanding that, in addition to education, such a person must have his own store of knowledge, social experience, be erudite and well-read. As we see, everyone has their own idea of ​​what an educated person should know.

Self-realization

When a person graduates from school, he experiences extraordinary joy, positive emotions, accepts congratulations and wishes to become a worthy person in the future. Having received a certificate, each graduate embarks on a new path in life towards self-realization and independence. Now you need to take an important step - choose an educational institution and a future profession. Many choose a difficult path to achieve their cherished dream. Perhaps this is the most important moment in a person’s life - to choose a professional activity that suits your soul, interests, abilities and talents. The individual’s self-realization in society and his future happy life depend on this. After all, an educated person is, among other things, a person who has achieved success in one area or another.

The importance of education today

The concept of “education” includes the words “form”, “form”, which means the formation of a person as an individual. It is formed internally by the “I”. Both to himself, first of all, and to the society in which he lives, engages in his field of activity, works and simply enjoys his free time. Undoubtedly, a good education is simply irreplaceable in our time. It is a decent education that opens all doors for an individual, makes it possible to get into “high society”, get a first-class job with a decent salary and achieve universal recognition and respect. After all, you can never have too much knowledge. With every day we live, we learn something new, we receive a certain amount of information.

Unfortunately, in our twenty-first century, the age of digital technologies, communications and the Internet, such a concept as “education” is gradually fading into the background. On the one hand, it would seem that it should be the other way around. The Internet, a bottomless source of useful information, where everything is accessible. There is no need to once again run around libraries, around fellow students in search of a missed lecture, etc. However, along with useful information, the Internet contains a huge amount of useless, unnecessary and even harmful information that clogs the human brain, kills the ability to think adequately, and confuses a person out of the way. Often, low-quality resources and useless social networks attract humanity much more than information from libraries that is useful for self-development.

What does lack of education lead to?

An uneducated person is under the delusion that he knows everything and has nothing more to learn. While an educated person will be confident until the end of his life that his education is not complete. He will always strive to learn what will make his life even better. If a person does not strive to understand the world and self-development, then in the end he ends up in everyday life, a routine where work does not bring either pleasure or sufficient income. Of course, lack of education does not mean a complete absence of any knowledge or certificates. A person can have several degrees and still be illiterate. And vice versa, there are well-educated, well-read people who do not have a diploma, but have high intelligence and erudition thanks to independent study of the world around them, sciences, and society.

It is more difficult for uneducated people to realize themselves, achieve what they want, and find something they like. Of course, remembering our grandparents, who at one time worked more than studied, we understand that it is possible to go through life without education. However, you will have to overcome a difficult road, work a lot physically, ruining both mental and physical health. Lack of education can be imagined as an isolated cube in which a person lives, not wanting to go beyond its boundaries. A raging life will boil and rush around, with magnificent colors, filled with bright emotions, understanding, and awareness of reality. And whether it is worth going beyond the cube in order to enjoy the true, fresh air of knowledge - only the person himself has to decide.

Let's sum it up

An educated person is not only one who has graduated well from school, an educational institution and has a well-paid job in his specialty. This image is unusually multifaceted, including a culture of behavior, intelligence, and good manners.

The main qualities of an educated person:

• education;
• literacy;
• the ability to communicate correctly and express one’s thoughts;
• politeness;
• determination;
• culture;
• ability to behave in society;
• erudition;
• desire for self-realization and self-improvement;
• the ability to subtly sense the world;
• nobility;
• generosity;
• excerpt;
• hard work;
• sense of humor;
• determination;
• wit;
• observation;
• ingenuity;
• decency.

The concept of “educated person” is interpreted in different ways, but the main thing in all definitions is the presence of education, obtained in different ways: through school, university, self-education, books, life experience. Thanks to knowledge, each of us can reach any heights, become a successful, self-realized person, a full-fledged unit of society, perceiving this world in a special way.

Currently, it is difficult to do without education, because any field of activity requires certain skills and abilities. And living in the world without knowing anything about it, like a primitive man, is absolutely pointless.

In conclusion

In the article we examined the main criteria, definitions of an educated person, and answered the question of what it means to be a cultured person. Each of us evaluates and looks at things according to our social status and ability to perceive the world around us. Some people don’t even realize that it’s bad for an intelligent person to say offensive things to someone they’re talking to. Some have learned this truth from an early age. After all, a person’s worldview is primarily influenced by the education of people who put certain information into it and were guides into this life.

We also found out that a well-read person is an individual who reads not only specialized, educational literature, but also the works of the classics. Much in this world is interconnected, but it is education that plays the main and decisive role. Therefore, it is worth taking it with all seriousness, desire and understanding. We ourselves are the masters of our lives. We are the creators of our own destiny. And how we live this life depends entirely on us. Despite the difficulties, political or military, our ancestors created excellent conditions for our life. And it is in our hands to make these conditions even better for our descendants. We need education in order to arrange our lives according to our own wishes and become a happy person.

It is difficult to improve your education via the Internet. In order to become an erudite person, you must remember to visit the library and read books by an educated person. We bring to your attention popular publications that every educated person should definitely read; this will make you an interesting, well-read, cultural interlocutor.

1. Abulkhanova-Slavskaya K. A. Activity and personality psychology.
2. Afanasyev V. G. Society: systematicity, knowledge and management.
3. Brauner J. Psychology of cognition.

Most of them do not have not only higher education, but even secondary education. It is noteworthy that this did not stop them from making amazing discoveries and becoming the founders of completely new scientific disciplines.

Konstantin Eduardovich Tsiolkovsky

Russian and Soviet self-taught scientist and inventor, school teacher. Founder of theoretical cosmonautics. He justified the use of rockets for space flights and came to the conclusion about the need to use “rocket trains” - prototypes of multi-stage rockets. His main scientific works relate to aeronautics, rocket dynamics and astronautics.
For unknown reasons, Konstantin never entered the school, but decided to continue his education on his own. Living literally in Moscow on bread and water (my father sent me 10-15 rubles a month), I began to study hard. “I had nothing then except water and black bread. Every three days I went to the bakery and bought 9 kopecks worth of bread there. Thus, I lived on 90 kopecks a month.” To save money, Konstantin moved around Moscow only on foot. He spent all his free money on books, instruments and chemicals.
Every day from ten in the morning until three or four in the afternoon, the young man studied science in the Chertkovo Public Library - the only free library in Moscow at that time.
Work in the library was subject to a clear routine. In the morning, Konstantin studied exact and natural sciences, which required concentration and clarity of mind. Then he switched to simpler material: fiction and journalism. He actively studied “thick” magazines, where both review scientific articles and journalistic articles were published.
In three years, Konstantin completely mastered the gymnasium curriculum, as well as a significant part of the university curriculum.

Srinivasa Ramanujan Iyengor

Without any special mathematical education, he obtained remarkable results in the field of number theory. His most significant work, together with Godfrey Hardy, was on the asymptotics of the number of partitions p(n).
At school, his extraordinary abilities in mathematics became apparent, and a student acquaintance from the city of Madras gave him books on trigonometry. At the age of 14, Ramanujan discovered Euler's formula for sine and cosine and was very upset to learn that it had already been published. At the age of 16, he came across a two-volume work by mathematician George Shoebridge Carr, “A Collection of Elementary Results of Pure and Applied Mathematics,” written almost a quarter of a century earlier (later, thanks to its connection with the name of Ramanujan, this book was subjected to careful analysis). It contained 6165 theorems and formulas, with virtually no proofs or explanations. The young man, who had neither access to a university nor communication with mathematicians, immersed himself in communication with this set of formulas.
In 1913, the famous Cambridge University professor Godfrey Hardy received a letter from Ramanujan, in which Ramanujan reported that he did not graduate from university, but after high school he was studying mathematics on his own. Formulas were attached to the letter; the author asked to publish them if they were interesting, since he himself was poor and did not have sufficient funds for publication. A lively correspondence began between the Cambridge professor and the Indian clerk, as a result of which Hardy accumulated about 120 formulas unknown to science. At Hardy's insistence, Ramanujan moved to Cambridge at the age of 27. There he was elected a member of the English Royal Society (English Academy of Sciences) and at the same time a professor at the University of Cambridge. He was the first Indian to receive such honors.

Milton Humason

Born in Minnesota, in the family of a large banker. At the age of 14 he left school and in 1917 began working at the Mount Wilson Observatory - first as a laborer, then as a night assistant. Despite his lack of special education at that moment, he showed extraordinary abilities as an observer, and by order of D. E. Hale, he was soon enrolled in the staff of scientists. He worked at the Mount Wilson Observatory until his retirement in 1957.
Main works in the field of spectral characteristics of stars and galaxies. In the initial period of his activity, together with W. S. Adams and A. H. Joy, he participated in the program for determining the spectral absolute magnitudes of 4179 stars; received a large number of photographs of nebulae and stellar regions. In 1928, he successfully continued the systematic spectral observations of faint galaxies begun at the Mount Wilson Observatory in order to determine their velocities. He developed a special technique for photographing the spectra of faint galaxies using a 100-inch and then a 200-inch reflector; in 1930-1957 he determined the radial velocities of 620 galaxies. Performed spectral observations of a large number of supernovae, former novae and faint blue stars, including white dwarfs. In 1961, he discovered comet 1961e, which was highly active at great distances from the Sun.

Camille Flammarion

I did not receive a higher education. From 1858 to 1862 he worked under the leadership of Le Verrier as a calculator at the Paris Observatory, from 1862 to 1866 he worked at the Bureau of Longitudes, and in 1876-1882 he was an employee of the Paris Observatory. He was the editor of the scientific department of the magazines “Cosmos”, “Siecle”, “Magasin pittoresque”.
In addition to astronomy, Flammarion studied problems of volcanology, the earth's atmosphere, and climatology. In 1867-1880 he made several ascents in balloons in order to study atmospheric phenomena, in particular atmospheric electricity.

Michael Faraday

Faraday never managed to receive a formal education, but early on he showed curiosity and a passion for reading. There were quite a few scientific books in the store; In his later memoirs, Faraday especially noted books on electricity and chemistry, and as he read, he immediately began to conduct simple independent experiments. His father and older brother Robert, to the best of their ability, encouraged Michael's thirst for knowledge, supported him financially and helped him produce the simplest source of electricity - the Leyden Jar. His brother's support continued even after his father's sudden death in 1810.
An important stage in Faraday’s life was his visits to the City Philosophical Society (1810-1811), where 19-year-old Michael listened to popular science lectures on physics and astronomy in the evenings and participated in debates. Some scholars who visited the bookstore noted the capable young man; in 1812, one of the visitors, musician William Dance, gave him a ticket to a series of public lectures at the Royal Institution by the famous chemist and physicist, discoverer of many chemical elements, Humphry Davy.
Discovered electromagnetic induction, which underlies modern industrial electricity production and many of its applications. Created the first model of an electric motor. Among his other discoveries are the first transformer, the chemical effect of current, the laws of electrolysis, the effect of a magnetic field on light, and diamagnetism. He was the first to predict electromagnetic waves. Faraday introduced into scientific use the terms ion, cathode, anode, electrolyte, dielectric, diamagnetism, paramagnetism and others.

Walter Pitts

Walter Pitts was born in Detroit on April 23, 1923, into a dysfunctional family. He independently studied Latin and Greek, logic and mathematics in the library. At the age of 12, he read the book “Principia Mathematica” in 3 days and found several controversial points in it, about which he wrote to one of the authors of the three-volume book, Bertrand Russell. Russell wrote back to Pitts and suggested he go to graduate school in the UK, but Pitts was only 12 years old. After 3 years, he learned that Russell had come to lecture at the University of Chicago and ran away from home.
In 1940, Pitts met Warren McCulloch and they began to pursue McCulloch's idea of ​​computerizing the neuron. In 1943 they published "A Logical Calculus of Ideas Relating to Nervous Activity."
Pitts laid the foundations for the revolutionary concept of the brain as a computer, which stimulated the development of cybernetics, theoretical neurophysiology, and computer science.

Vladimir Andreevich Nikonov

A self-taught scientist without higher education, one of the largest Soviet onomasts. Honorary member of the International Committee of Onomastic Sciences at UNESCO (1972).
After high school, he did not study anywhere, focusing exclusively on self-education. Nikonov, therefore, did not have a higher education, a certificate of secondary education or a certificate of completion of primary school.
The main scientific interests in onomastics are Russian surnames, geographical names (toponyms), names of space objects (astronyms), names of animals (zoonyms). More than 300 articles and notes by Nikonov were published in various Soviet encyclopedias. He gave lectures at 18 universities of the USSR.

Boris Vasilievich Kukarkin

After graduating from school, he was engaged in self-education and at the age of 18 became the head of the observatory of the Nizhny Novgorod Society of Physics and Astronomy Lovers, holding this post until 1931.
In 1928, he discovered a relationship between the period and spectral class of eclipsing variable stars.
In 1934, together with P. P. Parenago, he established a statistical relationship between the flare amplitude and the duration of cycles between flares in U Gemini variables, which led to their prediction of the flare of the nova-like star T Corona Borealis.
Conducted studies of light curves, periods and luminosities of Cepheids.

Victor Stepanovich Grebennikov

Russian entomologist and apiologist, animal artist, specialist in insect breeding and conservation, writer. Honored Ecologist of Russia, member of the International Association of Bee Research Scientists, as well as a member of the Social-Ecological Union and the Siberian Environmental Foundation.
Self-taught, did not have a higher education.
In 1946, he was convicted of forging bread cards (he drew them by hand), and was released under the 1953 amnesty. Since 1976, he worked in Novosibirsk, at the Siberian Research Institute of Agriculture and Chemicalization of Agriculture. He created several micro-reserves (sanctuaries) for insects in the village of Krasnoobsk, Novosibirsk Region, where he lived.
He devoted his entire life to the study of insects.
Died April 10, 2001 at the age of 73.

Israel Moiseevich Gelfand

Gelfand's main works relate to functional analysis, algebra and topology. One of the creators of the theory of normed rings (Banach algebras), which served as the starting point for his (together with M.A. Naimark) theory of rings with involution and the theory of infinite-dimensional unitary representations of Lie groups, which is of significant importance for theoretical physics. Along with this, the author of fundamental results in the field of the theory of generalized functions, worked on differential equations, the theory of topological linear spaces, inverse problems of spectral analysis, quantum mechanics, dynamical systems, probability theory, approximate and numerical methods and other areas of mathematics. Author of numerous works on the neurophysiology of volitional movements, cell migration in tissue cultures, proteomics (classification of the tertiary structure of proteins) and algorithmization of the clinical work of doctors.
It is noteworthy that he is the founder of a large scientific school, although he himself did not even receive a secondary education.

The importance of education cannot be denied. It is believed that the more educated a person is, the more successful his future career will be. Many people assume that people who drop out of university or school choose a long and painful career in fast food cafes. But there are always exceptions to the rules. Below is a list of 10 such people.

10. John D. Rockefeller.Billionaire.

Before becoming perhaps the richest man in history (adjusted for inflation), John Rockefeller was the humble son of a slick swindler and a high school student in suburban Cleveland, Ohio. Although he had little education, when he was sixteen, Rockefeller decided to drop out of school and start a career with the goal of earning $100,000.

We can safely say that he made his dream come true, as well as many others. Rockefeller made his mark on the oil industry by founding the Oil Company and eventually creating a monopoly over the entire industry. By 1902 he had $200 million, and before his death he accumulated a fortune of over one billion dollars. Studying must have been important.

9. Horace Greeley.Journalist and congressman.

Unless you're a big fan of journalism history, you've probably never heard of Horace Greeley, except perhaps for a passing mention somewhere. Born in New Hampshire in the early nineteenth century, Greeley became one of the most influential press men in American history. He also became a congressman and one of the founding members of the Republican Party.

Greeley did all this without a high school education. At the age of fifteen he left home to become an apprentice to a printer in Vermont. When he turned twenty, he moved to New York and began working for The New Yorker magazine and the New York Tribune newspaper. It was his work with the Tribune that made him famous. He also helped found the city, which later began to bear his name. To this day he is considered one of the most influential journalists in history.

8. John Glenn. Astronaut.

During the intense space race of the 1950s and 1960s, a man emerged who became the first American astronaut as the United States battled the Soviet Union for supremacy, first in space and then on the Moon. This man was John Glenn. He became a war hero and one of the most famous astronauts in history, despite dropping out of university. Glenn attended Muskingum University where he studied science. But when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, he left it to fight in World War II.

7. Steve Jobs.Co-founder of Apple.

The late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries have seen a plethora of great figures who have accomplished incredible things without even graduating from college, such as Bill Gates (Microsoft) and Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook). But perhaps the most influential "technological" mind of the last century was Steve Jobs, co-founder of .

Jobs and Steve Wozniak created the first successful personal computers and introduced numerous revolutionary products such as the iPod, iPhone and iPad. Jobs did it after only six months at university.

By the way, Jobs was adopted. His biological mother agreed to give him to Clara and Paul Jobs only on the condition that he attend university. Well, the mission is partially accomplished.

6. Mark Twain.Writer and satirist.

Arguably America's most beloved writer and humorist, Mark Twain rose to fame after creating the classic characters Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. His novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is considered by many to be the “Great American Novel.” Not bad for a man who had incomplete secondary education and worked as an apprentice since the age of eleven.

When Twain was eighteen, he worked as a printer in New York, Philadelphia and St. Louis, and spent all his evenings in the library. Before he became a steamship navigator, he expanded his knowledge by reading everything he could get his hands on. Twain continued to work on steamboats until the Civil War, and after a short stint in the Confederate Army, he began to travel throughout the country and write widely. Twain is clear proof that intelligence is something you are born with.

5. Henry Ford.Industrialist and entrepreneur.

In the history of America, perhaps, few people are the personification of the “successful self-taught”, more of a person who is remembered by mankind for almost single-handedly creating the US automobile industry. Ford did not complete high school education. He was born on a farm outside Detroit, where he worked with his father, who dreamed that his son would one day have his own farm.

Instead, at the age of seventeen, Ford left home and became an apprentice machinist in Detroit, thus choosing a career that would ultimately change his life, making him a very wealthy and successful industrialist. Despite having little to no high school education, Ford created a mechanized assembly line long before his work earned Detroit the name "Motor City."

4. William Shakespeare.Poet and playwright.

Currently one of the most famous historical figures, William Shakespeare is one of the most famous historical figures. He created some of the most beloved works the world has ever known: Romeo and Juliet, Lady Macbeth, etc. But very little is known about Shakespeare's early life; in fact, there is no record of him ever receiving a secondary education.

Scholars suggest that he attended the New Royal School, but at the same time, judging by some of his works, he left school at the age of thirteen. It seems surprising that the man who gave the English language more than 1,700 words apparently dropped out of high school.

3. Winston Churchill.Statesman and politician.

One of the most prominent political figures of the 20th century, a famous satirist and master of aphorisms, Winston Churchill was born into an aristocratic family. It is therefore not surprising that he quickly rose through the ranks and eventually led Britain to victory in World War II. What's truly amazing, and why he's on this list, is that he reached such heights with less than a high school education.

Churchill, who came from a wealthy family, had access to the best education. But, unfortunately, this did not mean that he was a good student. Studying was not easy for him and he studied quite poorly, and was often punished for poor performance. The military service also had problems due to poor performance. He tried three times to enter the Royal Military School, and was accepted only after applying to the cavalry class rather than the infantry class, as the requirements there were lower and knowledge of mathematics was not required. To be fair, it is worth noting that no one likes mathematics.

2. Abraham Lincoln.President of the USA.

Perhaps the most popular US President of all time, a man who, contrary to popular belief, did not fight vampires, Abraham Lincoln was the sixteenth President of America. He led the nation through perhaps its most difficult times. But the man who gave the Gettysburg Address and ended slavery in the United States, although not with the Emancipation Proclamation, was not well educated.

Lincoln was almost entirely self-taught, despite being notoriously lazy at an early age. This did not stop him from starting his career in politics from the bottom in his early twenties. Lincoln became a member of the Bar after studying the law on his own in his spare time. It seems that he was a political prodigy. And if everything they say about him is true, then he achieved everything thanks to reading by candlelight in his small wooden house.

1. Albert Einstein.Physicist.

Yes, a man whose name is now equated with the word “genius”, who published more than 300 scientific papers; the man who created the theory of relativity (E=mc2) and the man who won the Nobel Prize was a high school dropout. He tried to enter the university, but failed the entrance exams.

Einstein eventually went to college and graduated, of course, precisely because people of his unrivaled intellect will always find a way. But the fact remains: the greatest mind of the twentieth century was expelled from school.