How do you get a good education?

Education is not just what you get in school. It is the result of your life experiences as well. So, what you learn outside of school adds to what is taught to you inside. To get a good education, you need a positive attitude to life and to learning. You need to read, to listen and the absorb anything that comes your way, analysing it and being curious enough to research it further.
My parents met on a ship going to England in the 50s. The married there, and my brother and I were born there. We came back to AUstralia shortly after I was born, but with the six years of experiences of Europe my parents had, I began to be educated from day one. In the cupboard was a suitcase full of memorabilia. On rainy days, my brother and I used to go through that case, looking at flags from Scandinavian countries, reading postcards from places like Heidelberg Germany and Montmartre, Paris, France. We learned European Geography from that. We also found the family ration books and that set us off asking about the war and our parent's experiences. From there, I used to engage my grandparents and my remaining great-grandmother about their lives. Although my great-grandmum died when I was nine, I have a small storehouse of information about her childhood stored in my brain (and now written down), which told me about bushrangers, convicts and rural life in the late 1800s. I could not get enough of history and read everything I could. That led also (naturally enough) to genealogy.
My mother's love for French had me speaking basic French when I was a child. I now speak four languages fluently and have a knowledge of up to half a dozen more. I, too, have travelled widely.
Education is just layers upon layers of knowledge and the ability to use it. If you look at my profile, you will see the places where my "education" has taken me, and the many and varied directions I have gone in.
You have to be excited about learning something. eg I knew that Arabic people used the term of affection "habib/habibi" to each other, but when a Lebanese friend casually asked me to hand him something, calling me "habibti", I stopped him straight away and said "Is that the feminine form of habibi?" He said yes, so I questioned more "Is that the usual way of turning a masculine noun into a feminine in Arabic?" He stopped in his tracks and said "I never thought about it before but now that you say it, it is." THAT IS EDUCATION, being able to question and learn new things.

Reading. You have to process information through your mind to gain an education, and the best way is reading.

Applying yourself in school in important, but reading is my number one. There is SO MUCH you can learn by just picking up a book.

Have the chance to live in a country where you can go to school.
Have the chance to have parents or friends who teach you good things about life.
If not, try to compensate this and seek help.
Think about your errors and try to make it better.
Inform yourself (reading or on the internet).
Stay polite.
Question your knowledge because not everything that they tell you can be used in all circumstances.
Learn languages and travel to other countries.

By applying yourself.

You get enrolled into a good school and do well, and put all your effort. You concentrate on your studies, focus on homework, academic tasks. You keep social like out of your life, no time for friends. You study 4 hours a day trying to recompilate all the things you learned today. You buy tons of books to help you out. You choose a career that will pay good. Who cares if you don't like it, money is what matters in life. You study for that career. No time for girlfriends or nonsense. You because an outcast, a rich outcast, with a good education.