haunted education

John Reed, from a blog entry titled 'UNDERGRADUATE EDUCATION, AND UPDIKE’S “HAUNTED QUALITY,'" dated March 30, 2009:
 
John Updike refers to his undergraduate education as having a “haunted quality.”  The subject recently came up in a class of mine at New School, and then with an editor friend of mine, Jacob.  The haunted quality of undergraduate education, to me, has to do with so much of the focus being outdated—an emphasis on public domain works and creative movements long gone.  Jacob’s theory was that the education was more valuable once forgotten.  That it infuses your material more naturally, easily, when you don't consciously recollect it.  Appealing to me, since I have completely forgotten everything.