Our extensive educational systems are remarkably successful in making the tools and their use available. The results of the store of accumulated knowledge, the methods of dissemination, and use of this knowledge attest to the power of the process intellegent life has created. It is this jointly held knowledge, distributed cognition , that defines intelligent life. The idea of tools goes far beyond physical tools. It includes the many intellectual tools that have evolved over several millenia.
Examples are language, mathematics, social sciences and physics.
To become educated means leaning how to make use of this huge font of knowledge. It is not physically possible, or even desirable, to understand all of this knowledge in depth. The goal of becoming educated is to be able to learn enough about topics as needed and to use them effectively for the task at hand. It is a matter of learning to learn. Access to the huge font of knowledge that exists and continues to expand is increasingly available to everyone.