Education: A Flattener?

Currently, my 9th grade Geography students are reading Thomas L. Friedman's The World is Flat, and their first assignment in conjunction with reading the first chapter is to blog about whether they believe "Education is a Flattener." For the past month they have been introduced to terms such as outsourcing, insourcing, offshoring, and uploading; but now they have been tasked to connect these terms to their education and determine (for themselves) whether or not their education is preparing them for their life outside of school. I'm very intrigued to learn more about their opinions and get them to think deeper about their school experience.