Education Quote by Jackie DeShannon

Art school shows up here less as a credential than as a permission slip. Jackie DeShannon isn’t praising technique or career networking; she’s crediting a space where identity becomes something you can practice out loud. For a working musician who came up in an era that packaged women into marketable “types,” that’s not a soft, self-help claim. It’s a quiet statement about authorship: the real product of training was not skill, but self-definition.

The line’s power is in its modesty. “I think” and “a great deal” sound conversational, almost evasive, like she’s refusing to mythologize her own origin story. That restraint functions as subtext: she doesn’t need to perform genius; she’s talking about formation. Art school, in this framing, is an environment that legitimizes experimentation and weirdness before the industry starts sanding it down. It’s where you learn your tastes, your boundaries, your voice, and then how to defend them.

There’s also a cultural tell in choosing “taught me who I am” rather than “helped me find myself.” “Taught” implies structure and discipline, not wandering revelation. DeShannon positions identity as something made through craft: repeated attempts, critique, revision. For an artist whose work bridged genres and eras, that’s a subtle argument that authenticity isn’t a mystical essence you’re born with. It’s a skill you build, and education can be the rehearsal room for becoming unmistakably yourself.