W9 - Should education "stretch" a person?

I believe education should stretch a person - but comfortably. By "stretch", my definition is to guide someone along the path of education at a pace which challenges them, but isn't over-challenging. From personal experience, when I am stretched I achieve my full potential, but when I am over-challenged I stress and panic because I feel out of my depth.

If education didn't "stretch" people then there would be little or no learning process. From pushing a child to write their "b"s the right way around to pushing a third year to do the best in their dissertation, it's all part of a strive to achieve more. However this is an academic approach. Some people are not natural born learners, and you can only guide people in the right direction to a point. If they really aren't interested, then there is little hope.

Education must definitely "stretch" a person but this goes beyond academic learning. At an early age a student's strengths and weaknesses should be identified and constantly assessed so they can be "stretched" in a way which suits them, perhaps taking other routes such as vocational and practical learning which is absent or lacking in many schools - but still keeping an academic element, which is important. Education is not a "one size fits all" concept which is sadly an approach which many academic institutions take.