Autodidacticism is sometimes a complement of modern education.[1] As a complement to education, students would be encouraged to do more independent work.[2] While Leonardo da Vinci was an autodidact, the Industrial Revolution created a new situation for self-directed learners.Before the 20th century, only a small minority of people received an advanced academic education. As stated by Joseph
                     

Whitworth in his influential report on industry dated from 1853, literacy rates were higher in the United States. However, even in the US, most children were not completing high school. High school education was necessary to become a teacher. In modern times, a larger percentage of those completing high school also attended college, usually to pursue a professional degree, such as law or medicine, or a divinity degreeFor many professions or for personal knowledge, however, formal education is not as necessary today due to the easier availability of free information on the Internet. Whereas in the past, one of the main benefits of going to college was to gain access to their superior libraries, today access to facts and books is available online. Financial analyst and author Peter Schiff, for one, says that "never before in history has it been so easy to be self-educated.Collegiate teaching was based on the classics (Latin, philosophy, ancient history, theology) until the early 19th century. There were few if any institutions of higher learning offering studies in engineering or science before 1800. Institutions such as the Royal Society did much to promote scientific learning, including public lectures. In England, there were also itinerant lecturers offering their service, typically for a fee.[Prior to the 19th century, there were many important inventors working as millwrights or mechanics who had typically received an elementary education and served an apprenticeship.[3] Mechanics, instrument makers and surveyors had various mathematics training. James Watt was a surveyor and instrument maker and is described as being "largely self-educated".[6] Watt, like some other autodidacts of the time, became a Fellow of the Royal Society and a member of the Lunar Society. In the 18th century these societies often gave public lectures and were instrumental in teaching chemistry and other sciences with industrial applications, which were neglected by traditional universities. Academies also arose to provide scientific and technical trainingYears of schooling in the United States began to increase sharply in the early 20th century. This phenomenon was seemingly related to increasing mechanization displacing child labor. The automated glass bottle making machine is said to have done more for education than child labor laws, because boys were no longer needed to assist.[7] However, the number of boys employed in this particular industry was not that large; it was mechanization in several sectors of industry that displaced child labor toward education. For males in the U.S. born 1886–90, years of school averaged 7.86, while for those born from 1926–30, years of school averaged 11.46One of the most recent trends in education is that the classroom environment should cater towards students’ individual needs, goals and interests. This model adopts the idea of inquiry-based learning where students are presented with scenarios to identify their own research, questions and knowledge regarding the area. As a form of discovery learning, students in today’s classrooms are being provided with more opportunity to "experience and interact" with knowledge, which has its roots in autodidacticism.