I enjoyed it, and it gave me confidence that I was capable of doing some interesting things. My schooling wasn't very inspirational.

Still not sure why it seems silly to you.

What seems silly to me is the particular cultural excitement and optimism around education and liberalism, and the way it was manifest in school, that I lived through as a kid and is now dead.

We may be talking about different eras. I'm Gen X, I don't remember any great excitement or optimism manifested in schools of my time.

Quite the contrary; I think I was one of only two or three people in my year to go on to university. But then I was a huge nerd who was really interested in ideas.

Yes I think that’s right. Thanks for sharing. Kids of the 60s-70s who were outsiders because of their academic/nerdy interest became teachers and created a culture with the ideals they thought were missing. And that’s what I experienced.