Schooling and Education
It is commonly believed in the United States that school is where
people go to get an education. Nevertheless, it has been said that today
children interrupt their education to go to school. The distinction between
schooling and education implied by this remark is important.
Education is much more open-ended and all-inclusive than schooling.
Education knows no bounds. It can take place anywhere, whether in the shower or
in the job, whether in a kitchen or on a tractor. It includes both the formal
learning that takes place in schools and the whole universe of informal learning. The
agents of education can range from a revered grandparent to the people debating politics on the
radio, from a child to a distinguished scientist.
Whereas schooling has a certain predictability, education
quite often produces surprises. A chance conversation with a stranger may lead
a person to discover how little is known of other religions. People are engaged
in education from infancy on. Education, then, is a very broad, inclusive term.
It is a lifelong process, a process that starts long before the start of
school, and one that should be an integral part of one's entire life.
Schooling, on the other hand, is a specific, formalized
process, whose general pattern varies little from one setting to the next.
Throughout a country, children arrive at school at approximately the same time,
take assigned seats, are taught by an adult, use similar textbooks, do
homework, take exams, and so on. The slices of reality that are to be learned,
whether they are the alphabet or an understanding of the workings of government,
have usually been limited by the boundaries of the subject being taught. For
example, high school students know that they are not likely to find out in
their classes the truth about political problems in their communities or what
the newest filmmakers are experimenting with. There are definite conditions
surrounding the formalized process of schooling.
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