Famous High School and Elementary School Dropouts.

http://www.angelfire.com/stars4/lists/dropouts.html

You'll be surprised.

it used to be that people who were not university-bound routinely left school at age 15 to get a job. I'm not sure when that changed, but going to England in 1967 at the age of 17, I was surprised to see really young-looking people working full-time in stores and restaurants and offices.

But then, I recall that she started show business rather early...her parents were vaudvilleans, I believe.

I do think you're right. Several of the Brits on that list...Michael Caine, Roger Moore, Julie Andrews....are all from the same generation that may have had that kind of early work ethic.

I remember reading that she and Petula Clark were considered show biz rivals, in that they were both precocious singers.

But even without the career, a person with no intention of attending a university would have left school at 15.

Henry George

His seminal, and bestselling work, Progress and Poverty is available online. It's subtitle is:
An inquiry into the cause of industrial depressions
and of the increase of want with increase of wealth...
The Remedy

If you've a few hours, it's a good (not dry) read; and quite apropos given our current real estate bubble and increase in the disparity of wealth distribution.

It's not what you know, but who you know.

at Saint Michael's Parochial Prison, grades 1-8 for me.

Probably far, far more of those...

I dropped out halfway through my senior year because of personal shit. It's never been an issue - I'm pretty much self-educated anyway. And I honestly think education in this country is so lousy that a high school education isn't worth much - the majority of people I know are high school grads and their level of ignorance is staggering. Most high schools don't encourage much in the way of creativity, critical thinking, individuality, risk-taking, stretching onesself. They tend to work in a rather assembly line manner, treating each student as an exact copy of the one before. Turning out little drones.

I learned more my first year in the "real world" than I ever learned in school.