"Growing up, I never had to learn how to dial it down. I would turn on, and keep going until I ran out. So high school was horribly numbing. A lot of my peers had brilliant minds and curiosity that were being stymied and obstructed at every turn."

Violinist, composer and producer Behnam Arzaghi (Soundcloud) charts his long trajectory through five different systems of education: homeschool, public high school, music conservatory, public university, and a start-up university that tours the world. He describes how these systems succeeded or failed to resonate with his learning style and creativity, and his observations on the effectiveness of different formats of education.

Behnam began playing violin at 6, writing and performing at 12, d ...