I think the key here is that school is actually obstructing, not aiding, the "years of study". Extraordinarily gifted people can often be autodidactic - very good self-directed learners. When that hunger for knowledge exhausts the ability of the public school teet to supply, it becomes either a matter of starvation or fending for oneself. Staying in school in these cases can actually hamper learning via distraction and peer pressure to conform to the "norm".