Education and Teaching

So I've just finished reading a book by Jacques Barzun written in 1945 entitled Teacher in America. One question it raised for me is what is education? We expect education to teach our children everything..."what the rest of the world leaves undone." He then proceeds to say that "education is a lifelong discipline of the individual by himself" and thus education is a synonym for civilization. I truly believe in lifelong learning. I believe that what we learn on this earth gives us an advantage in the next. I believe that there are good ways to get educations and poor ways, but throughout life's lessons every single one of us becomes more educated. I believe that every person is an educator - we all have responsibilities to teach...to teach our children, to teach fellow employees, to teach our neighbors, but we may never know what we taught someone. I especially believe that it is my responsibility to teach my children. It is not the government's responsibility, it is not my church's responsibility, but it is my responsibility and my right to teach my children. The government, my church, my neighbors and friends, they should and I hope will help me to teach my children, but ultimately it is my responsibility. And so I need to be best prepared to teach my children by being educated myself.