What is an educated society? Will we be more educated and will socieites be better if we all have university degrees? Life itself is an education and intelligence does not always come in an educated package. Unfortunately the accumulation of material possessions is seen as a mark of success in a consumer based economy and maybe an education is seen as necessary to be a player (or survivor) in this context.

It is odd that we push the idea of education to our children yet universities are 'dumbing down' in the interests of filling quotas, we have lost sight of the basics in education and we have lost essential skilled trades people as a result of a lack of funding for technical colleges.

Education and intelligence can come in many guises.

It would be good to have more positive recommendations about what can be done today about situations that have never been good, such as social goals, and poor literacy. It is easy just to keep on grumbling.

1. It would be good to set as a goal the pursuit of truth as even more important than seeking knowledge alone - which is also of course, more important than being bombarded with information.

2. In a world where the brightest can work out flights to Mars and nanotechnology, it is ridiculous that millions of adults cannot read even at the level of thousands of five-year-olds. There are many reasons for this, and some could be tackled. e.g. for a start,
a) removing barriers to literacy in classrooms, that cause so many to fail right at the beginning. See e.g. http://home.vicnet.net.au/~ozideas/litbar.html

b) allowing more opportunities for self-help and for revision for those who fail, rather than just offering 'more of the same' as expensive remedial. It is ridiculous that literacy innovations in ways of presenting 'how to' read do not get interest as ways to help the variants,and investigated to improve them.
See eg http://www.ozreadandspell.com.au

This cartoon summary of the writing system has been condemned by the literacy establishment on the grounds that it is not what reading is about, which is an interaction between the reader and the text, etc etc. but no considered response to it has ever been made,nor to the fact that it does help some learners, as an aid, but of course not a panacea. As it is free, it is worth trying. And improving.