The Term “Education”

The term “education” comes from the Latin word “educare”. According to Dictionary.com it is “the act or process of imparting or acquiring general knowledge, developing the powers of reasoning and judgment, and generally of preparing oneself or others intellectually for mature life”. In addition, there are some other statements describing education as the process of transferring or acquiring certain knowledge or skills, needed to obtain a certain profession. “Education” defines degree, level or type of study, result produced by instruction, study or training, science or art of learning.

Merriam-Webster gives the similar definition, such as “the action or process of education or of being educated; also: a stage of such a process, or the knowledge and development resulting from an educational process a person of little education”. LONGMAN Exams Dictionary defines “education” as the process of teaching or learning, particularly at school, college, university; the teaching a special subject and an interesting experience which has taught something. The derivatives from the word “education” are educate, educational, educated, educator, educable, educative, educationally, uneducated, educationalist, uneducable. The analysis of the concept “education” helps to infer its meaning from different sources as well as to describe its origin, possible synonyms, define the difference and compare the use of term by proponents of different approaches to education.

There are two different Latin roots of the English word “education”. They are “educare”, which means to train or form, and “educere”, which means to draw out (Bass and Good 2003). Despite the fact that these two words are different, they compose the concept “education”. Evidently, there is an etymological basis for the appearance of different opinions in the area of education. People use the same concept to point two completely dissimilar terms. One side argues that education means preservation and transmitting knowledge from parents to children with the purpose of good upbringing. The other side views education as preparing a new generation for the changes that must take place and for the ways to solve problems, which are still unknown. One approach calls for memorization of information and person’s ability to become a good employee (Bass and Good 2003). The other requires surveys, thinking and creation. In order to further complicate the situation, some groups expect that school education will perform both functions, but will allow only those actions that contribute to the development of education. The balance of educational goals is a significant focus for educators. In order to achieve a balance, teachers must begin by changing the organizational structure or decision-making methods (Bass and Good 2003). Using stakeholder perceptions in setting goals, establishing a common vision of education and facilitating the role of teachers is an initial step. The word education was formed from two Latin terms “educare” and “educere” which do not define the same subject or process.

For the majority of people the concept “education” is the same as “schooling”, however, it is not so. When it comes to education, people often think that it will be about “learning” or “schooling”. When most of people hear the word “education”, they think that it is identical to “schooling” emphasizing that the first refers to such places as school, university, college, or to positions like teacher, tutor. The problem is that “schooling” means the process of visiting school, not including the studying or learning, which includes the act of concentration, remembering and reproducing the processed material in the future. Education can be defined as act of discovering for the certain period. From this point of view, teachers are trying to act with students or pupils, but not simply affect them. Their task is to educate (associated with the Greek ideas of development), identify or develop a potential. Such type of education bases on deliberate and hopeful learning which people perform including a process of inviting truth and possibility and believing that it would help them ‘be more’ informed, respectful and wise, Such beliefs are grounded in a desire that at all everybody may flourish and share important prospects in their life. (Smith 2015). Thus, the term education has different aspects and cannot be identified with the concepts with more narrow meaning such as “learning” or “schooling”.

The term “education” marks a deliberate process, done with the specific purpose. That goal is necessary to develop understanding and judgment, and to allow action. We can do this for ourselves, for example, by learning what features of a road sign mean that we can obtain a management license; or watch wildlife programs on television because we are interested in animal behavior (Smith 2015). Such process is sometimes called self-education. Often, though, we strive to encourage learning from others. The examples are parents who try to teach their children use cutlery properly, or teachers at school who encourage pupils to learn foreign languages and educators who show the group of students how to work together and get good results. Particularly, educators have a clear understanding of ??what they would like their students to achieve, or what skills to acquire. In the first case, they can work on a curriculum, have a plan of a session or a lesson with clear goals and have a high degree of control over the learning environment, what can be defined as “formal education”. In the second case, for example, when working with a public group, this is a setting where teachers are present as guests, and this type of teaching can be treated as an informal type of education. Consequently, “education” includes two types: formal and informal and means the process conducted with particular goal.

The process of education comes from the focus of respect. It is an integral part of the concept because it turns out to educators, during education and to those who are educated. It can be for other people and for us and represents the attitude or feeling, which appears when people understand the significance of others. Dillson (2014) states that the term “respect” was formed from the Latin “respicere”, which means “look back” or “look again” at something (Smith 2015). In other words, when we respect something, we appreciate it enough to make it our focus and try to see it for what it is, and not for what we want it to be. It is so important that it requires our recognition and our attitude – and we have decided to answer. When we think highly of someone, we can quite talk about respect and listen carefully to what others say or appreciate the example they give (Smith 2015). However, the process of education contains a more abstract idea – a moral value. Along with respect to others comes the respect for ourselves, it is the main condition for proper educator job. Self-esteem cannot be confused with qualities such as self-respect or self-confidence, this is rather due to one’s internal value and a sense of importance. The “education” contains the term “respect” and involves moral value as well.

The term “education” comes from two Latin words “educere” and “educare”. It means the process of gaining knowledge for the future profession, result of long-term studying, process of training uneducated person. Sometimes, it is paralleled with “schooling” or “learning”, but it is not completely the same. Education is wider than studying, learning or teaching as it involves process and result, in the second case those words cover only narrow meaning and point only process of interaction of a person with a certain material. Additionally, education, which is performed by the subject with a certain purpose, means respect and is a deliberate act.