In all of those stuffy traditional environments, someone else decided what we should learn beforehand, whether it was a school board, a private instructor, or family. Learning conferred a top-down relationship with someone else who had the knowledge we sought. Self-learning—in most, but not all, areas—wasn’t considered as legitimate as getting an education from a known or accredited source. To enter professions or be considered in any positive light, you must have gone through the proper channels and received the pertinent pieces of paper that told people you were knowledgeable. Gatekeepers
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