That’s easy, life and mistakes.
I learned way more from mistakes than I did from successes. I expected them. Having to re-do something, or being embarrassed for saying or doing the wrong thing, were lessons I never forgot. For the record, I consider losing the same thing as a mistake. I hate to lose at anything. If I do, I make sure it only happens once in a row,.
Life is a great teacher. When you get old like me, you’ve been through a lot. School can’t teach you much other than how to learn, or some facts to memorize. Having to survive is a lesson that I get every day. Hell, I’m grateful every day I wake up now.
Delusions of Adequacy 
Had an English teacher way back around ’53 or so who told us, “We are trained to open your minds and show you things to help you succeed in life. You won’t like some of it, and sometimes you’ll wonder why we’re making you endure topics you aren’t yet interested in.
“But trust me, one day you’ll have need of the science, the math, the social studies to get along in adult life.
“Now, in this state and in this town, we’ll be teaching you all those things in English, so it makes sense for you to learn that really well to make learning the other subjects easier.”
That made a lotta sense to me, so I did exactly what she suggested.
Perhaps the most memorable teacher I ever had was Dr. Kanatzar, a large impressive man with an equally impressive belly who was a recognized expert on rural Russia, kinda odd back in the late ’50s, especially in a backwater college in Jacksonville, Illinois.
He had that knack of putting new concepts into side-by-side comparison with basic things we already understood, kinda like Isaac Asimov in his books. I can still remember the rate of a freely falling body: 32ft/sec/sec.
Why? Well, Dr. Kanatzar employed a speech defect in his delivery. I’m quite certain that a man of his intellect and personality could have corrected it, and I suspect that he didn’t even use his idiosyncrasy in his private life.
But I’ll never forget his telling us about “Gawiweo Gawiwei and his fweey fawing bodies.” Still hear him saying it in my head. Also, “Wemembew that chemistwy, biowogy, and math ah paht of evewything in wife, so wearn them now while you ah stiw weady.”
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I agree with your view that life and mistakes are the greatest teachers. I seldom learned anything doing it right the first time.
My eighth grade history teacher had gone farm-to-farm, house-to-house across France in WW II. He loved this country, and had a great way to instill that love to anyone that would listen. RIP Mr. Wheeler.
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