Philosophical, historical, economic, and sociological perspectives

Schooling, Training & Education

Schooling, Training, and Education: What is the Difference?

The author of Educational Aims in Historical Perspective makes a distinction between schooling, training, and education. Schooling, for example, is a term meant to encompass all the experiences of school, including extra-curricular activities, the way the school is organized and structured, and the social climate of the school. What the student learns on the school bus, in the lunchroom, and on the playground -- as well as in the classroom -- is included in the term schooling.

Through these structures, the student is socialized into the dominant ideology of the society and is exposed to society's prevalent beliefs and attitudes about important social issues -- our attitudes toward war, for example. Is war presented as something glorious? Does the teacher speak of soldiers as brave heroes, thus sending the idea to children that war is a way to be a hero? Does the teacher point out other ways to show bravery and courage? Do students get the idea that moral courage is just as admirable as physical courage? Although the author points out that public policy frequently makes more impact on the schools than schools make on public policy, the importance of the ideology the children are learning cannot be understated. Teachers could be force in ending war's legitimacy as a way to solve problems -- or at least to greatly reduce its occurrence.

As the old saying goes, "Actions speak louder than words." Students learn from the practices they encounter in school. For example, when I was in school, girls were never chosen to carry the milk crate into the classroom at snack time. Only "big, strong" boys were allowed this privilege. Because there is virtually no difference in the physical strength of boys and girls in elementary school, this sent a social message about what roles are appropriate for males and females in our society. Certain roles are inappropriate for girls to fill -- carrying something heavy, for example. So the socialization of gender roles is part of what the author would call schooling.

Schooling teaches ideological lessons as well. For example, take the concept of equality. My sister was a gifted student. But the teachers pretended that she wasn't. Maybe, they thought it wasn't democratic for one student to be smarter than others. The other students knew it, though, and they resented her for being different. Because she was always ahead on her work, the teachers would have her help the slower girls, and I suppose that was an acknowledgement that she was smarter. I don't think helping other students was a terrible thing, but it reinforced her different-ness without addressing the issue of being different. The message was that people are supposed to be equal in their abilities and talents, and that just isn't true. All her efforts to fit in and be "like everybody else" were useless because teachers didn't acknowledge that it is okay or even, a good thing, to be different or smarter. Anyway, I don't think that is what equality is about. Equality means equal rights and privileges and opportunities, fairness and justice, not equal talents and abilities. My sister ended up getting pregnant. She married early and did not go on to college. She associated school with feeling like a freak. Some of what her schooling taught her about herself -- in this case an ideological concept of equality -- was negative, and that shouldn't be, not if the goal of school is to help every one achieve his or her highest potential. Thus, the concept of schooling, and the social messages the children are learning, is an important one to consider in managing a classroom.

Many people confuse training with education. Of course, training is part of education and the educational process. The author defines training as teaching children to respond in a specific manner -- we train children to see symbols and groups of symbols as meaningful, for example; they have to be able to read and to learn from reading before they can be educated.

We train students to type or do keyboarding so that they can do it almost automatically, without thinking. When society tells children to "stay in school," it is really telling them to get training for a good job. We tell them they will earn more money as a result because they will be qualified for better paying jobs. But training is only one aspect of schooling. We train children to raise their hands before speaking, to take turns, get in line, be on time, etc., and these are important forms of social training. Training is important, but certainly not all there is to being educated. As the authors point out, training has to do with specific skills -- learning to navigate the Internet, for instance, while education is the broader context in which the training takes place: "Training is means; education is end" (8).

Education leads to a richer, more fulfilling life in the sense that the educated person has a broader appreciation of meaning and nuances of meaning. For example, an uneducated person may "hate" classical music, while an educated person may get great pleasure and enjoyment from going to an opera, ballet, or symphony concert. The enjoyment is enabled by the person's ability to understand what he or she is experiencing. This understanding comes from having been taught to think critically and reflectively -- not what to think, but how to think.