Hello All!
The following material was prepared by my colleague and friend Graham Oliver
http://www2.waikato.ac.nz/education/edstudies/oliver/education.htm
My motivation for posting arises from views espoused by some (not necessarily 
here) about the role of the school and what constitutes education.
I thought these notes might provide a base for the start of some discussion.
            What is Education?
            ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Getting a better understanding of the more sophisticated
possibilitiesÿof the  meaning of the word "education" can
have a startling effect on theÿway we view  our world. This
is mostly because we are so familiar with institutionsÿand
processes which are called "education" that it does not
occur to us thatÿthe  meaning of the word might be widely
abused, and that its more importantÿmeanings might be
different from what we have taken for granted.
Somethingÿwe would want to take very seriously indeed might
be missing from  the efforts we are most used to as
"educational". In fact when some vital elements are missing,
it can be argued that much of so-called "education" is
actually an abuse of the learner which does serious harm.
There are three main forces at work here:ÿÿ
We grow up and go through a schooling system, usually
regulated by the State,  called an "education" system.
People who get a lot of this system are often  called
"educated", and we are widely encouraged to get a lot of it
ourselves,  mainly so that we can get a good job. We may not
always enjoy this (and many  of us don't succeed at it). We
might think that it could be done much better.  But it is so
much a part of our world that we take its existence for
granted,  and rarely seriously question what it is for.
The State -- even the democratic State -- has an interest in
our compliance  with its authority and administration. It
also has an interest in an efficient  and flourishing
economy. Much of "society", even in a democratic State,
places  a premium on stability and conformity over the
development of human potential  which might seem unusual or
different.
"Education", as a word, implies positive value. When a
teacher is said to be  "educating, this can usually be
interpreted as praise. If someone is said to  be "well
educated", this normally conveys that, at least here, they
have acquired some valuable qualities.ÿ
The combination of these three forces means that, on the one
hand weÿare not  very critical about the sorts of things
that "education" is appliedÿto, and  on the other, because
the word conveys something positive, it isÿuseful to slap it
on any learning process we want other people to think well
of,ÿsimply  because of the positive aura which the word will
present to us.ÿIt has ideological, or manipulative value.ÿÿ
Education and training compared
The best attempt we have at offering a profound
interpretation of theÿmeaning  of "education" was offered by
Richard Peters at the London Instituteÿof Education in the
nineteen sixties and seventies. Although His approach has beenÿwidely
criticised, his account established a benchmark which has not yet
been superceded.
ÿÿ
 Peters rightly identified the idea of the "educated person"
as the mostÿimportant one, and sketched a picture of the
basic characteristics by comparingÿthe "educated person"
with the "trained person". The characteristics  of
"training"ÿwill be explored more fully in a separate note,
but clearly training is muchÿmore narrow in scope and is
very much applied. It is instrumental, notÿnecessarily
worthwhile, and the role of reasoning in it is  weaker. In
factÿit need not entail reasoning at all. In contrast,
education  implies somethingÿabout breadth of knowledge and
understanding, is intrinsically valuable,ÿand while it will
not involve the cultivation of reason at every point,ÿreason
is essential to it.ÿ
ÿ
ÿ
These differences can clearly be seen by making several
simple comparisons.ÿThough Peters might not approve of these
examples, they make the point veryÿquickly. We simply need
to ask ourselves what differences we would be tryingÿto
convey if we were to choose the expression "physical
education" overÿ"physical training", or vice versa.
Similarly, what would be the differenceÿbetween "moral
education" an "moral training"? We usually can't avoid
theÿimportance of the difference when we look at "sex
education" and "sex training".ÿThere have been many
advocates of sex education in schools,  but rarelyÿadvocates
of "sex training".ÿÿ
... continued inthe next message ...
Cheers
Chris
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