Abstract
All of us have tales to tell of our educational experiences, in the author's case now stretching over 52 years. Education has been and presumably remains a significant part of our lives, but what is it? A light hearted approach is taken which includes references to a small number of fictional texts, philosophers and Government reports. A popular political mantra, repeated ad nausea during the election campaigning, is the intent to 'raise standards'. It is argued this is vague and unhelpful and actually only refers to gaining qualifications, the better the school's SATS results the better the school, the more 'firsts' the better the university. The agenda informing such criteria is suggested as education now has moved towards skills and employability and its present definition is therefore linked to training with the aim of such an ?education? as producing a compliant workforce and national economic prosperity. The paper's theme is that such a definition is reductionist and ignores the intrinsic features of the possibility of education to be a process for self emancipation coupled to the simple joyous experience of exploring the unknown. Better to travel than arrive.