Schooling¹ 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 revered² grandparent to the people debating politics on the radio, from a child to a distinguished³ 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 infancy⁴ 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 atapproximately 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.

在美国，人们通常认为上学是为了受教育。 而现在却有人认为孩子们上学打断了他们 受教育的过程。 这种观念中的上学与受教育之间的区别非常重要。 与上学相比，教育更具 开放性，内容更广泛。 教育不受任何限制。 它可以在任何场合下进行，在淋浴时，在工作 时，在厨房里或拖拉机上。 它既包括在学校所受的正规教育，也包括一切非正规教育。 传 授知识的人可以是德高望重的老者，可以是收音机里进行政治辩论的人们，可以是小孩子， 也可以是知名的科学家。 上学读书多少有点可预见性，而教育往往能带来意外的发现。与陌生人的一次随意谈话可能会使人认识到自己对其它宗教其实所知甚少。 人们从幼时起就 开始受教育.因此，教育是一个内涵很丰富的词，它自始至终伴随人的一生，早在人们上 学之前就开始了。 教育应成为人生命中不可缺少的一部分。然而，上学却是一个特定的形 式化了的过程。 在不同场合下，它的基本形式大同小异。 在全国各地，孩子们几乎在同一 时刻到达学校，坐在指定的座位上，由一位成年人传授知识，使用大致相同的教材，做作业， 考试等等。 他们所学的现实生活中的一些片断，如字母表或政府的运作，往往受到科目范 围的限制。 例如，高中生们知道，在课堂上他们没法弄清楚他们社区里政治问题的真情， 也不会了解到最新潮的电影制片人在做哪些尝试。 学校教育这一形式化的过程是有特定的 限制的。