- The Point of Schooling: What he is trying to imply is that what the point of education is. He asks us this question and then goes on to ask if its to make people competent, caring, loving and lovable or if its to sustain a democratic society. The author also tells us that the point might be to invest in our future. This matters because no one really knows the purpose of education and with this he leads us on to answering the question he asks of what it means to be well educated. He is trying to let us understand or give us an idea of what he thinks might be a few of the possible answers.
- Evaluating People vs. Their Education: Here he implies that if well educated means how much we remember from school then a lot of us would be poorly educated no matter how high our education is. Also, says that if being well educated has to do with how well we were schooled then there is no point to school because the well educated people probably just sat there thinking of irrelevant things. This matters because it makes us question just how well the educational system really is and if what school we go to really matters. People can go to the worst schools but still be "well educated" and some can go to the best schools and still not be "well educated".
- An Absence of Consensus: What he implies here is if there is even a way to agree that a high school student is well educated. Do high school students need to be able to know something or be able to do something to be considered "well educated"?. He also points out that a lot of people don't even know what well educated means. This matters because now-a-days they expect so much from us to show we are well educated and it might even be different than a century ago. Also because he says that a lot of people give being well educated different meaning than others and this can be confusing to people.
- Some Poor Definitions: Here he implies that sitting in class, having job skills, high scores on standardized tests, knowing a lot of facts does not make one well educated. When he talks about the high test scores he says that teachers can point out a lot of students who don't do well on tests but are talented thinkers. This really matters because there are a lot of people out there who are pretty talented but when it comes to tests they just don't do well, maybe its because the subject interests them but the school system in general just doesn't. They probably thing they are not part of the "well educated" group so they don't really care and this shows how poorly they are using the definition of being well educated.
- Mandating a Single Definition: The author implies that there really isn't a definition to being well educated. He pretty much says that everyone has their own definition and that is why people always agree or disagree with how they define a well educated person. This really matters because everyone tries to make a definition for being well educated and sometimes it may really bring someone who really is talented down. All these definitions really confuse people so everyone should just be able to define themselves instead of other people doing it for them.