Last week I met a delightful woman who left school with no educational qualifications. She apparently came from an area (and a family) where expectations were pretty low. When she was in her 30s high schools in the area started allowing adults to study with the kids and she went along and took some classes. Cutting a long story (much of which I don't know anyway) short, sho wrote a novel which not only got published but won a major literary award and she's now teaching creative writing at university.

wr.