School Education Should Go Above and Beyond

School education should go above and beyond its general tendencies to attempt to produce good grades. A proper school should contain fine educators, ones who find that nurturing and nourishing the students are the top priority. While this may be different from climbing the higher statistics -- an inevitable goal due to the sole purpose of budgets -- one can still argue that the statistics will follow if the basis has been set for a better standard to begin with.

Why not put "better passing rates" and "higher grades" as a secondary mission, and "proper education" a top priority? To be able to define a "school education," one must look at the separate definitions of "school" and "education" as well as "teacher" and "educator." A good school might not necessarily mean a great education, and a good teacher does not make a great educator; the same can be said for the reversal of the statements.

In order to do this, one must find the proper definitions for "school," "education," "teacher," and "educator." What makes each word an important term to understand the basis of a good "school education?" Those are the questions to be answered. A "school," as most people see it, is a place where adolescents and teenagers attend in order to gain an education.

John Gatto mentions that "schooling" was thought to serve a "threefold purpose": "to make good people, to make good citizens, [and] to make each person his or her personal best." According to Gatto, this concept of school is still not realized, and what would have been an institution where education could flourish, his article only shows the truth behind the school and the environment inside it: that schools are there to alleviate the boredom people have experienced otherwise. This in itself does not a good school make.

Likewise, an "education" can be defined as a sort of cultivation of one's potential, a nurturing of talents that allow a person to rise above one's original station. It is the enlightenment of the mind, so to speak. A school is not synonymous to education. Is it possible to have a great education without the use of a school? Yes, it is.

Gatto has argued this point in his essay "Against School," wherein he lists those who have risen far and beyond their station to do greater things in the world, all without having entered school. In various eras of the past, there are a slew of characters who have found ways to educate themselves, to learn what it was to learn without seeking to do so in an environment of "learning." Of course, those who have been educated without having to enter the school environment have had some semblance of help.

Behind a great person is a good influence, whether.