I could audit classes at my university but I had to work. Over the decades, access to college courses without credit has grown a lot. My ipod has many courses for download on a host of topics. My local library carries materials by the Teaching Company, a private co that hires the best profs to create college courses. The library subscribes to about four companies. The courses are pricey. I paid for a music appreciaition one but could not keep up the expense.
I love education! My mom told me I cried so hard to start school (and she doesn't know where I learned about school) that she enrolled me in an experimental program run by the local state teacher's college. I think Romper Room on TV and the Mouseketeers had an influence. Annette Funciello was always doing everything ahead of me.
The Witness stance on education proves to me that it is a cult. It focuses on preserving itself, not educating its members to more fully understand doctrine. When I became Episcopolian, the priest said all our gifts that God endowed us with were expected. Brains, music, art, whatever.. and more. God's wisdom certainly cannot fit within the pages of the Watchtower. Is God so puny and unenlightened? For me, the beginning of knowledge is to acknowledge how little you know, how no human can understand some things.
A common theme growing up was the cult of personality within the Witnesses. Power reinforced itself. The good, faithful servant was often tossed aside for some secular political reason. I feel so strongly about this issue it scares me.