What Does "Educated" Mean?

I've been using my NCTE membership to its fullest lately, looking for professional development opportunities and participating in discussion board postings.  It's provided me with quite a bit to ponder and consider!  A recent discussion on education, money, and grading resulted in an economic lesson of sorts.  At the same time, it also served as a reminder of the complexity of our education system.  Below is a response I posted in reply to some ideas that were posted there.  I edited a bit for placement in my blog, but it is essentially the same.  The link leads to NCTE's open forum, but you need to be a member to access the discussions.

"It is incredible how the discussion has evolved in to a lesson in economics and away from its original intent: education. A colleague's post on FDR's "Economic Bill of Rights" notes that Americans have "the right to a good education," and perhaps that is where we should focus our discussion. What, exactly, is a "good education?" How is it determined and how should it be measured? Such a vague concept is part of what has left the system in such turmoil - no one agrees on its meaning.


The complex nature of education - its living, mutable character - is undeniable. Is it influenced by the systems in which it exists - economic, social, political, historical, etc.? Of course it is. To focus it as one tool in the social struggles of our society is to ignore its place in the others - and vice versa - and we have to be careful of doing just that. It does not play just one role, but many, from preparing the next generation of workers to redefining the social responsibility citizens have to one another. As I mentioned in an earlier post, our focus on equality has led us away from excellence. Don't misread this - I don't mean we shouldn't have equal education for all students. But what does equal mean? We (society as a whole - not "we" meaning educators) have focused the knife and, in our surgery on the system, decided equal means to provide opportunities for all to succeed by a focus on teacher quality (not a negative idea there), and additional supports for students (whether it is tutoring or the ability for parents to move the student to other schools based on AYP, etc.). Yet, if schools are equal - should they not all have equal capabilities - resources - ranging from teachers to textbooks, computers to whiteboards, and everywhere in between? Suburban (and even urban) schools in wealthier areas have schools that are clean, rich in technology, abundant in resources, and so on while other schools struggle to maintain enough textbooks for the students, much less enough teachers or even a sufficient hint of technology. Wealthier neighborhoods can afford to dedicate more resources to their schools, so how should we be helping those that can't?

Perhaps we need to start here - what does a "good" education mean? What should it look like? And what is necessary to make that happen in ALL of our schools?