The difference between schooling, learning, and education

Any discussion about the future of education has to first focus on the purpose of education. To do this, we must first distinguish between education, learning, and schooling. Here’s how I see the difference:

Learning: The cognitive process of acquiring new skills or knowledge.

Education: Knowledge acquired by formal learning and instruction.

Schooling: The process of being formally educated in a school (as opposed to self-study, online learning, private tutorship etc.)

Learning is a lifelong process. However, education and schooling are temporary. We undoubtedly need education. But I’m not entirely convinced we need schooling — especially in most schools as they currently are.

Currently, it would not be an exaggeration to say that most people survive and succeed in life not because of but in spite of their schooling. Renowned educationists such as Marc Prensky and Sir Ken Robinson have all pointed out how the current school systems are not fit for purpose. The reason for this is because most teachers, principals, educational boards, and governing bodies aren’t clear in their minds about what the purpose of education is and what the difference between Education, Learning, and Schooling is.

We don’t need schools to get an education.

The Purpose of Education

In the words of Albert Einstein: “Education is what remains after one has forgotten what one has learned in school.”

The purpose of education ought to be this: to create compassionate and creative students who will help develop and sustain a just society where all individuals are able to live happy, fulfilled lives — as free from pain and suffering as possible. The goal of education should also be to ensure we achieve species-wide transcendence and bring about civilisation-level change so that we don’t repeat the mistakes of the past as we move forward into the 21st century and beyond.

This ties in closely with Marc Prensky’s views on what the purpose of education ought to be. He says, “We educate our kids so they can better their, and our, world. Our children can be, and should be, improving their world — and improving themselves in the process — via a new approach that far better suits them and the needs of our future society. From the very start of their education, we should be fusing ‘thinking skills’ and ‘accomplishing skills’ into an education with a direct, hands-on connection to the world and its problems.”

Marian Wright Edelman Is an American activist for children’s rights. She has articulated what is perhaps the best reason for educating our kids: “Education is for improving the lives of others and for leaving your community and world better than you found it.”

If our children aren’t leaving schools being able to do this, then we must seriously question the kind of education we are offering them.

School is a ritual.

In his 1971, book, Deschooling Society, Ivan Illich makes a powerful case against Schools. “School” is thought of as something that is indispensable. We have raised generations of people (parents, educators, students, politicians, and bureaucrats) to believe that without schools and a conventional education society will collapse. Illich makes a compelling case to “deschool” society, wean our citizens off institutionalised, factory-style, pointless education, and start thinking of alternatives.

Pupils are “’schooled’ to confuse teaching with learning, grade advancement with education, a diploma with competence, and fluency with the ability to say something new. His imagination is “schooled” to accept service in place of value. Medical treatment is mistaken for health care, social work for the improvement of community life, police protection for safety, military poise for national security, the rat race for productive work.”

We have been indoctrinated to believe the notion that only schools can offer education and that skills and knowledge acquisition are only reliable if it is done formally in a traditional school. In the words of Ken Robinson “Schools kill creativity.” And in the words of Ivan Illich, “Schools pervert the natural inclination to learn.”

If you require more details to be convinced, read my past review of Deschooling Society.