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TOEFL Directory > TOEFL writing > 02 Schooling and Education
02 Schooling and Education
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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