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Education is not just something we receive through attending school, college, university or any other educational facility. Our education starts the day we are born and continues until the day we die. We learn because we are on a life path, and the better equipped we are in our pursuit of our dreams and goals, the more likely we are to realise and enjoy at least some of those aspirations. Our life path is our purpose, and that, I believe, is the missing ingredient in today's formal education system.

From a very early age, children display definite individual talents, and preferences towards certain activities that utilize these talents in an enjoyable way. Their innate sense of purpose guides them in the direction that most suits their abilities, which in turn leads them to discover where their strengths and weaknesses lie. Parents recognise their childrens' strengths and provide them with toys and equipment designed to expand on their developing skills.

The current education system seems to completely overlook the whole concept of individual purpose. No two children start their school lives with the same desires, abilities or level of intellect, yet they are all expected to follow the same curriculum and achieve the same outcomes. When they fall behind in a subject that is obviously not one of their strengths, they are pushed to do better and keep up with the class, often resulting in a lowered self esteem and lack of confidence in any of their abilities. When this happens in more than one subject, the effects are worsened, and can turn a child who was once eager to learn into a bitter, disruptive student whom no teacher wants to teach.

The highly intelligent child faces a different set of circumstances with a similar result. Lessons are learned quickly, and the child is eager to move on to more advanced study, but must endure the repetition involved in bringing the rest of the class up to the same level of understanding. Before too long, boredom sets in and the child's sharp mind finds ways to distract itself, and others, from the tedious waste of time that school has come to represent. The joy and excitement that once characterized this child's view of education are lost.

Students who consistently achieve grades within the accepted range for their year level will generally come through their primary education with their appetite for knowledge still intact. They may even have managed to preserve the unique gifts they brought to their first day of school. Then

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