英语沙龙：教育和学校教育（在线收听）

Education and Schooling

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 on 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 he knows 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 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.