What quality of education was available to Jane Austen?

I am currently taking a class on the novels of Jane Austen (I'm sure this sentence either please you or made you glad you aren't taking it). I will be doing a paper in this class focused around these main questions/ideas:

Jane Austen had very little formal education and though she may have been homeschooled some, she likely self taught herself everything she needed to know to write novels that today's literary circles find to be masterpieces. If Austen and other female authors of her time were able to write such works with very little "education" in the sense we consider education today...Is it possible we are simply missing something while trying to educate today's children?

Do not misunderstand me, I am not saying we shouldn't educate today's children to a better capacity than they were in the 16th century, but it's a point to remember when tradtional educational practices fail. There must be other ways, other successful ways. Outside of the box thinking.