At the NWAIS Fall Educators Conference we had an index card on which to ruminate about "Redefining Education."  

Below is what I took away from that discussion. (When I got home and looked up my Purpose of Education - which I first wrote 4 years ago, and last revisited 18 months ago - I was happy to find this is a reasonable distillation of those ideas.)

Education is the process through which a culture's past is reinterpreted for the present generation in way that may be useful to their future.

To be well-educated is to demonstrate both the character and mind (/intellect) needed to creatively (/effectively) apply one's education in new contexts as an engaged global citizen.  

(I am not yet sure whether I prefer mind over intellect, or creatively over effectively.  And I am still mulling over where the willingness/disposition to engage comes from.)