I had lots of zigs and zags in the road, (apparently some of my friends think having 80+ different jobs is odd,) but the first breakthrough open-brain moment I remember, I was in 4th grade. A day or two before, I eavesdropped on an old feller having one of those consarn-it-kids-today monologues that a child would normally ignore, but one thing leapt out at me, and I paraphrase:
"Kids today stay in school too long. If a kid can read and write, and multiply and divide, turn him loose and let him make a living."
Next day in Minimum Security Juvenile Prison aka Elementary School, where we did things like watch a B&W film about Pablo and his donkey in Ecuador, and did vocabulary quizzes, and math tests, and I was making A's on them... THAT moment, I had a fuzzy telenovela flashback to the Old Man talking "if a kid can read and write, and multiply and divide..." YES! THAT IS ME! Why am I still in school?"
I shoulda walked out. But they built a Star-Trekly modern annex where my 5th grade class was to be located. My revolutionary fervor was bought off with new carpet and the teacher who let me draw all I wanted.