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It is commonly believed in 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 working of government, have usually been
limited by the boundaries of the subject being taught. For example, high school
students know that there 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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发表于 2016-7-10 15:25:16