How great is this!  Good for him.  I'm very happy he realizes that education is priceless!

Mark Wahlberg Heading Back to High School

The actor, who dropped out of school in the ninth grade, announced that he's going back to high school starting later this month in an effort to get that diploma.

But you won't be catching him walking down the halls (sorry).

g will be continuing his education courtesy of a new online program based in New Orleans.

"It's an actual diploma," Wahlberg told David Letterman on Late Show last night. "I've got to take up all the courses that I missed, and I'm a little nervous."

"They're going to give me whatever credits I already have, which is probably like one or two," he joked. "But I'm going to make it happen."

Seeing that he has "a lot of downtime on sets in the trailer and stuff," the actor hopes to "just ... blast through it—hopefully do it within six to eight months."