It doesn't matter how smart one becomes, as long as they don't lose common sense. Or as they say, "He's so smart, he's dumb."
And there's a difference between "book smart" and "street (or life) smart."

I have known the overeducated and under understood. It is one thing to fill the mind with facts, and another to know how to use them. Teachers are very useful for teaching processes, like imitation of master artists in all fields. Perhaps the best education is to be an understudy or tutored by a master like Socrates.

We are now on the verge of an educational revolution. With the Internet, anyone can access the best teachers in the world for a fraction of the cost of what it took to leave the village and go to the big city seeking wisdom. It is all there for us to learn from. The key is learning how to learn without the help of a master tutor.

Ron

As you hint at, there are human teachers and there are Nature's teachers, be they sunlight, rain, the stalwart Redwoods, et al.

When the student is ready, the teacher will appear. Subjectively speaking: I acknowledge the old axiom: 'The more you know the less you know.' For me this has illuminated regularly the follies of intellectualism. 90% of what I learned, earning my hard-fought college degree, would end up proving worthless in the real world. As it turned out: There is only ONE teacher, from all those years, that I remember with fondness. Mr. Pyke.

Socrates proffered: "I cannot teach anybody anything, I can only make them think." Effective teachers, who love teaching, teach children to love learning. A teacher's purpose is not to create students in his/her own image, but to develop students who can create their own image. A great teacher has always been measured by the number of his students who have surpassed him.

In this stage of life I adhere to two principals: Trust and Respect. Without trust and respect there is only intellectual and emotional conflict, and constant striving and competition. You are one of the few poets who provoke thought in me, Alexander. I respect that. Continued inspiration. rlc

Whether overeducated or undereducated, what you suggest in this poem always comes true: "We are unable to take the lessons." For as long as I have been teaching, some nearly half a century now, I still realize that many students are unable or unwilling to learn because they think they already know. I had an argument with a student the other day. She kept interrupting me until I called her out and told her to keep silent. Then when I tried to give my advice about her writing, she started arguing with me, as if she knew better. At that point, I went silent and walked away. She complained to the head of department and was "listened to." I think I have proven my point. Whether educated or uneducated, it doesn't matter.