Stanley Kubrick said (edited for clarity):
I had one thing I think that perhaps helped me get over being a school misfit. I became interested in photography.
I started out by getting a camera and learning how to take pictures, and learning how to print pictures, and so on and so on, and finally learning how to sell pictures and would it be possible to be a professional photographer.
And it was a case of over a period of say from the age 13 to 17 of going through step by step without anybody really helping me the problem solving of becoming a photographer.
This particular thing about problem solving is something that school’s generally don’t teach you. If you can develop a generalized approach to problem solving it’s surprising how it helps you in anything.
I think that photography might have been more valuable than doing the proper things in school.