What is Education?

Natural learning environments inspire a burning desire to learn, the key to a productive lifestyle.

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Education refers to the process of learning and acquiring information. Education can be divided into two main types: formal learning through an institution such as a school and self-taught learning or what is often termed life experience. Generally, education is important for learning basic life skills, as well as learning advanced skills that can make a person more attractive in the job market.



When an individual thinks of becoming educated, most commonly he thinks first about formal schooling. Formal schooling exists in a classroom setting where a teacher provides curriculum according to an accepted plan of what must be learned. In the United States, a standardized testing system helps set the rules for what curriculum and lessons a teacher should be teaching. Programs such as No Child Left Behind, which was instituted by George W. Bush during his presidency, create a way to measure how much each child is learning across different school systems to ensure that all children receive a minimum level of knowledge and book learning.

Formal classroom learning generally starts when a child is relatively young — age five in the United States — and continues until the child has reached adulthood. The purpose of most classroom learning is not to prepare a child for a specific job, but instead to prepare a child to develop critical reasoning and thinking skills that he will use in further academic and career pursuits. Courses such as math, science, English, composition, writing, history and geography are all common. In the earlier grades, more basic skills such as reading, writing and arithmetic are taught, making these early educational classes vital for survival in the world.



School learning can continue for many years, especially if a child decides to pursue higher education. Colleges or universities provide specialized additional training and learning for a fee. Graduate schools and specialty programs, such as law school or medical school, also provide additional information to help prepare a person for a career. For many professional careers, both a bachelor's degree from a four-year accredited college institution and a master's or graduate degree are required to prove qualification for the job.

While book learning is thus very important, it is not the only form of education. Some individuals are self-taught, which means those individuals pursued knowledge on their own outside of a formal classroom. Many of these individuals may have read extensively or may have become experts within a given field. Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft, for example, was a college dropout.