It is almost tautological that the majority of what we know, we never set out to learn. There was no specific purpose in the acquisition of this information and yet it is acquired. Indeed our society, if decades of game shows from Brain of Britain, through Mastermind to Who wants to be a millionaire? are anything to go by, it is information which is highly prized - at times. This so- called 'general knowledge' is generally acquired incidentally and is only of lasting effect in that it may allow us to sound knowledgeable in conversation or, if the occasion arises, to not look too foolish in a game show. Indeed what we loosely term 'general knowledge' is most frequently the product of incidental learning. The first aim of this paper is to introduce and discuss a very specific form of incidental learning. Not one of marginal impact on our general lives but one which acts as a sort of Damascene experience with lasting effects on the learner. It is what I wish to term accidental learning, a form of unplanned learning, taking place in spite of one's best efforts but which is pivotal in determining one's perception of oneself as a learner. It is not the result of 'a planned, intentional preparation, [as] an aid to coping, a way of short-circuiting personal experience by drawing upon the accumulated experience of others' (Lawson 1982: 47-48). And yet as I shall argue, accidental learning is the very stuff of scientific discovery. The second aim is to relate the notion of accidental learning to the concept of education and to discuss whether this concept can, in terms of any definition of education, be defined as such and to discuss whether, in fact, it actually matters at all. This will enable a comparison of the knowledge gained through accidental learning with the concept of the educated person.