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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