does schooling get in the way of education?

I'll admit that this is a pretty controversial question for someone in training to be an academic. I revisited one of my first loves - the library. Now this was way before using the library solely as a place to search for books/articles for reviews of literature. I mean, before the shitstorm of papers began, when reading was a pure joy... I used to go to the library every few weeks or so, wander up and down the aisles, examine an interesting title, and flip over to read the description. It is the opportunity to learn a lot about many different subjects. Just to fulfill your curiosity on a variety of subjects.

This opportunity was pretty much lost to me once I began high school because of the shitstorm of papers. I'm reading this book about finances, "Rich Dad, Poor Dad." I happened upon an interesting concept of the author about education. He argues against specialization in any one field, saying that the truly successful know a little bit about a lot and are able to integrate that information to work in their favor.

Now a Ph.D. is about as specialized as you can get.... It's about a new level of learning - creating knowledge. It's about asking questions and critically thinking and testing out theories. While I may be able to recite stats about media socialization and gender roles, I'm missing out on all of the other knowledge that's out there. I have ideas about what I wanna do. It's not about pigeon-holing myself in this one area either. The problem is that I have no clue what else is out there beyond the very specialized information that I receive from folks who have preceded in the same footsteps.

I reexperienced some of the true joy in just letting my mind wander wherever it wanted to go. Learning just for the sake of learning about whatever. How can I get that back? How do I go about being a student of life and experience if this is what I truly want? This may be out there, but it is one huge part of the motivation of formulating an exit plan before I even start building an academic career.