Self-learning is important. My mother grew up in a small village and read the entire school library. She learned Polish on her own and at 20+ worked as a guide for Polish tourists in Moscow.
And during my school years, I read a lot of books and magazines in our city library :) Working with a large amount of information develops our brain and we grasp new information more easily.
In my family, parents taught us how to read before school. I am not sure if it was an advantage, but back then, I read a lot. Now, I can't read at all. Sad.
But you can write. On Hive it's more productive than reading :)