48. Education

The word 'education' can be derived from one of two Latin words or from both. These words are educate, which means 'to lead out' or 'to train' and educare which means to 'to train' or 'to nourish'. But this etymology does not give us an understanding behind the term itself. Educate is further defined as "to develop the knowledge, skill, or character of..." Thus, from these definitions, we might assume that the purpose of education is to develop the knowledge, skill, or character of students. Unfortunately, this definition offers little unless we further define words such as develop, knowledge, and character.

The meaning of the term 'education' can be summarily expressed as: A set of techniques for imparting knowledge, skills and attitudes. A set of theories which purport to explain or justify the use of these techniques. A set of values or ideals embodied and expressed in the purposes for which knowledge, skills and attitudes are imparted and so directing the amounts and types of training that is given.

We see some meanings by different people who were related to education and philosophy of it. Mahatma Gandhi: Education is "an all round drawing out of the best in child and man - body, mind, and spirit." John Dewey: Education is regarded as the development of "all those capacities in the individual, which will enable him to control his environment and fullfill his possibilities."

“The only purpose of education is to teach a student how to live his life-by developing his mind and equipping him to deal with reality. The training he needs is theoretical, i.e., conceptual. He has to be taught to think, to understand, to integrate, to prove. He has to be taught the essentials of the knowledge discovered in the past-and he has to beequipped to acquire further knowledge by his own effort.”