It is well known that education in society today is a crucial component for achieving success in the modern world. Illustrating this importance is the fact that the United Sates has made K-12 schooling mandatory for all students and even provides this education free of charge to everyone via its public school system. However, despite the fact that the intentions for our public education system are good-natured, at least on the surface, some rather critical viewpoints have developed that put into question the true motivations surrounding this type of schooling. Most notably, John Taylor Gatto, a writer and former school teacher with just about 30 years of experience in the New York public school system, provides his take on the true purposes of our educational system. He argues that, based on his considerable experience in the field, this system fails miserably to succeed in its perceived — but not at all correct — goal of producing good people and citizens that are performing at their personal best. Instead, the system routinely (and purposefully) discards those goals in favor of developing a manageable populace. Mike Rose, also a highly successful teacher and writer, discusses his own difficult and unconventional path through the school system in his essay “I Just Wanna Be Average.” Rose argues that our education system failed him in many ways and nearly rendered him unable to achieve success. Comparing the essays of Gatto and Rose brings about a startling conclusion