by Darrin A Yarbrough

Created on: March 19, 2009

"If you can read this, thank a teacher."Anonymous teacher
On the surface this might seem like a simple question with a simple answer, yet there are many factors to both teaching as well as learning. Not every student who receives excellent teaching learns and not every teacher truly teaches. However, it is a system and as a system it must have parameters in order to create definition and results that enable performance to be measured. Anything else will become devoid of any form in which to establish progress.

In addition, in the absence of accountability or consequence, performance becomes mediocre. While accountability need not necessarily be some draconian measure of such advanced degree to suggest, "If the student does not learn, fire the teacher." Similarly, a complete absence of accountability fails to reward those who are diligently and steadily demonstrating progress. In the absence of a reward response system eventually even those who remain motivated and make progress will begin to falter for a lack of competitive inspiration.

Trying to describe some sort of consequences associated with a compulsive educational system that identifies access to education as a fundamental human right, the following observations reveal some of the benefits as well as drawbacks. If one is offered all the gold one could ever want making unlimited amounts of gold available to anyone and everyone alike, pretty soon, gold holds very little value or interest. Similarly, making education a fundamental human right accessible to anyone and everyone alike, its value holds very little interest.

Unlike several hundred years ago when access to an education often involved significant effort on the part of the individual desiring the opportunity, it was not just enough to want the opportunity, one had to also demonstrate significant ability an remain available, or even seek out sponsorship to receive even a glance from instructors. A specific example brought to mind is Michael Faraday who spent years sweeping the floors of the lab before receiving opportunity to investigate and experiment eventually becoming a Cambridge University Professor and discovering the many properties of magnetism, he himself lamented at his own absence of mathematical facility for furthering his own endeavors.

Nevertheless, today's children recognize their access to education is a fundamental right requiring no further interest than merely "being." Therefore, they can choose to take or leave the opportunity at

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