Why schooling is not the same as education
From Alternative Education
In the 21st century, people tend to regard schooling and education as synonyms. In the UK, people talk about the age of compulsory schooling when what they mean is the age of compulsory education, and it doesn't occur to them to consider the differences.
Schooling is defined as the education a person receives at school, but it includes an idea of training or discipline as well as education. In schools in the UK now, there is a National Curriculum, which includes an idea that there is a body of knowledge which it is necessary for everyone to know. There is a move towards standardisation, to ensure that every child in the school system is learning the same basic knowledge as every other child. Schooling in modern times definitely seems to me to convey an idea of taking a child and filling them up with the things they need to know, and includes the supposition that this is the same for everyone.
Education has a definition and derivation which often surprises people. From a blurt it answer: "The term 'education' is the noun form of the verb educate. It comes from the Middle English educaten; coming from the Latin term educare, educatus meaning 'bring up, rear'; linked to educere meaning 'to lead forth' or 'bring out'. The suffix 'ion' refers to a particular action or process. It could also refer to the result of the same. It also means 'state or condition'" I'd go further than that blurt it answer... I'd say that education includes a notion of bringing out what is already there - the talent and the natural ability, the personality and character of the child, allowing them to grow into the person they are capable of becoming.
Although it is inconvenient for the standardisation of education, schooling cannot erase the differences which are inherent in every human being, due to their natural ability, their experience of life and learning, and their current state of body and mind. However carefully curricula are designed, however early children are put into schools, the complexity and diversity which makes human beings such interesting creatures, is always apparent.
The aim of an alternative education, is to find those differences and to celebrate them: to allow children to find their interests and talents and to build on them: to allow a child to grow intellectually in a natural way, just as they grow physically and emotionally.
As W.B. Yeats apparently said, education should be the lighting of a fire, not the filling of a bucket. Caliandris 07:26, 22 September 2008 (UTC)
