At present time, Education takes an important role in an individual’s life. When we try to learn about education, the first question that comes in our mind is what is education? We can understand education in different ways, which are as follows:
Etymological meaning of Education–
The word ‘education’ is derived from the Latin word ‘educatum’ which means,
Educatum = to train
The word education is a combination of two words ‘E’ and ‘Duco’ which means
E = from inside
Duco = pull out
The word ‘education’ is formed by combining these two words ‘E’ and ‘Duco’ which means to exclude inside education. Every child is born with certain innate powers, abilities and tendencies. Education plays a significant role in developing these innate powers. Education flourish the inner abilities and knowledge of child and develops it further to explain its importance in our life. Every child has ability to be a part of this society and education is what let them to survive and compete among, as many are excelling in Mathematics, many in science, some are having good artistic knowledge, while many have outstanding sports abilities i.e. everyone has a unique and extraordinary ability hidden within which get refined by education.
There are other Latin words that have similar meanings, such as ‘educare’ and ‘educere’ which means to bring up, lead and develop, etc.
Narrow meaning of Education–
In the narrow sense, education is used as a synonym for knowledge, humility and discipline. Knowledge refers to being educated in different subjects, arts and skills while discipline is all about to develop the behavior and rites of children in schools. The narrow meaning of education implies that it is limited; which refers only to the education imparted in schools which is quite limited to bookish knowledge.
Broader meaning of Education-
In a broader sense, education from school is useful throughout our life, which means that we get educated lifelong. It is what comes from inside the schools as well as from society. The prevalence of education means that we can get educated from anywhere anytime and this knowledge stays with us throughout and keeps on being used somewhere.
Definitions of Education
Many educationists and scholars wrote about the meaning of education and gave their definitions, which are as follows –
According to ‘Vivekananda’–
“Education is the manifestation of perfection already reached in man.”According to ‘Socrates’–
“Education means the bringing out of the ideas of universal validity which are latent in the mind of every man.”According to ‘Rabindranath Tagore’–
“Education means to enable the child to find out ultimate truth.”According to ‘Yajanavalkya’–
“Only that is education which gives a sterling character to an individual and renders him useful for the world.”According t ‘Shankaracharya’–
“Education is that which leads to salvation.”According to ‘Kant’–
“Education is the development in the individual of all the perfection of which he is capable.”According to ‘M.K. Gandhi’–
“By education, I mean all-around drawing out of the best in child and man, body, mind and spirit. Literacy is not the end of education, not even the beginning. It is one of the means whereby man and woman can be educated. Literacy in itself is no education.”According to ‘Bossing’–
“The function of education is conceived to be the adjustment of man to his environment to the end that the most enduring, satisfaction may accure to the individual and the society.”According to ‘Froebel’–
“Education is process by which the child makes the internal external.”According to ‘Pestalozzi’–
“Education is a natural harmonious and progressive development of man’s innate powers.”According to ‘T.P. Nunn’–
“Education is the complete development of individuality of the child, so that he can make his original contribution to human life according to his best capacity.”According to ‘Brown’-
“Education is the consciously controlled process whereby changes in behavior are produced in the person and through the person within the group.”
Conclusion
Education is the process of growth and development of the child’s innate powers. As we know that every person have some special abilities and education is what refine those abilities by practicing and this is how a child excels in different fields. It revolves around the teacher, student and the environment or content. Education is the process in which teacher teach the student according to the content and the content is according to their environment. So we can conclude that the environment (society) around us has the significant impact on education.
