On teaching yourself meditation

Can we teach ourselves to meditate ?It is, after all, a natural technique; anyone can learn to meditate.
There two schools of thought on this issue. The traditional religions tell us that meditation is something we must learn from a qualified teacher. However, the more “New Age” type religions and philosophies are more tolerant of the idea that it is something we can teach ourselves.
I am more inclined to follow the more traditionalist path. I can compare it to learning a language. Learning to speak and understand French, for example, is so easy and natural that little babies can do it. But, a person cannot learn a language in isolation. You can’t learn the language properly if you just follow your own rules.
One mistake I think that the self taught make is in regards to the thoughts we all get during meditation. Those of us who were taught by an instructor learn that we are to ignore any thoughts we may have…….no matter how “enlightened” they may seem to us at the time. The self taught often hold on to these random thoughts believing them to be of great meaning and significance. They will wander about- following these thoughts which can go off in odd and bizarre directions. This is not meditation. We must not pay attention to these thoughts that come to us. We just return to our sacred word or mantra in the same effortless way that we think any other thought. These random thoughts cannot be prevented but we should not put any value to them. They can only lead us astray if we believe that following them is part of meditation.