Feel unconvinced by the talk that you don't need an art education to understand contemporary art. I'm not saying you can't enjoy it without an education or you can't have an opinion without an education but if I go to the museum and look at (random example of the first thing I found on the Ikon gallery page)

Ryan Gander, Please be patient - Jonathan Watkins sitting in the Deutsche Bank VIP lounge at Frieze Art Fair London, 2007, talking candidly about his disdain for the British weather (2015) Circular toughened glass disk, acrylic 45cm in diameter © Ryan Gander. Courtesy the artist.
Then I haven't a clue what's going on. Who is Jonathan Watkins? What's Frieze Art Fair London? Why is a circular toughened glass disk with acrylic on it in an art gallery? I certainly couldn't pick it out from a line up of circular toughened glass with acrylic paint on it.
I think it's fine to have this reaction and I quite enjoy it (It's why I like contemporary art) but there must be a bunch of stuff behind why this abstract work has been put in the gallery instead of all the other millions of abstract works and I couldn't begin to tell you why. All I can tell you is if I like it, how it makes me feel and maybe take a stab at how it was made.
There was some chapman broz thing at the Fitzwilliam recently that needed some knowledge of Goya that I absolutely lacked other than knowing "He was emo" I liked the stuff but who cares if I liked something??? If the artist is working on some level higher than "Will randos like this" (which they surely will be if they went to art school, it might even be impossible for them not to) then there must be something happening in the work beyond "Do you like this" and without an equivalent education, how will you ever be able to even scrape at what that is?
Older stuff too, if I go round with someone who has some art education my experienced is improved like a billion times because there's a tonne of things to talk about.
I love art, I think it's important, I'm fine with people going to art school or not or making money of stuff that only appeals to some people. I don't have a problem with any of art, but I think that to understand a lot of it you need a specialised education, even if that specialised education just consists of looking at a lot of art.