Reflections
Education or Schooling

Recently my wife mentioned that a daughter of a friend, or a friend of a friend's daughter, had difficulty finding a job. My wife commented further that she was surprised, in that the young lady in question "had a good education". I asked, "How do you know?" My wife replied, "She has a Master's degree from" and she named the university. I responded, "I understand that, but how do you know that she has a good education?" This points to a very common bit of faulty thinking that permeates the field of education. We do not confuse hospitalization with good health, religion and church attendance or court appearances with citizenship. Why, therefore, do we confuse education and schooling? Is it sloppy thinking or is it a deliberate scheme by educators to blur the lines?

Good's Dictionary of Education defines schooling as "individual training or education received at an educational institution, military or civilian." Education, on the other hand is defined as "the aggregate of all process by means of which a person develops abilities, attitude and other forms of behaviour of positive value in the society in which he lives." Obviously schooling is part of one's experience, and, therefore, part of one's education.

George Bernard once said, "From a very early age, I had to interrupt my education to go to school." Bud MacDougall, an icon of Canadian business now deceased, added, "I left school at 14 and I've regretted it all my life. Should have left when I was twelve." I am sure we have all heard the comment that we should bestow a degree on every newborn so that the process of getting an education would not be disturbed in later life. One might also give each newborn a high school graduation certificate.

I am not knocking the value of schools; they are a major contributor towards one's education. But so are the home, church, peers, travel, the community and others. The popular view is we get our education in schools; from all the others we only get experience. I like to think of an educated person as one who has learned from many experiences including those occurring in school.

Some parents prefer to teach their children at home. We call it home schooling. Since they often follow the school curriculum, why isn't it home-education? We also hear of people who are self-taught, self-made, home-schooled but seldom self-educated or home- educated. Why not? Why does the school component qualify as education and not the others?

And what is an education anyway? Should we describe or define an educated person as one who has graduated from high school or holds a college diploma or university degree? Is a person with two degrees better educated than a person with one? Is a person with three degrees even better educated? Where do honourary degrees fit into the scheme of things? Is a person without a diploma or degree an uneducated person? I think not.

Application forms ask one to list one's education. What they really want, an account of one's schooling - one's school, college and university achievements.

Schools now focus on a very narrow range of disciplines such as English, French, science, art, physics, chemistry, biology, and mathematics. Shouldn't one's education also includes the ability to operate as part of a team, to solve problems, think critically and demonstrate a positive work ethic? Is practicing good citizenship part of a good education and how about having a positive work ethic? If we think that the latter are important and part of a school's responsibility, we should say so, and they should appear on a person's transcript.

The alternative is to continue a model that, in the words of one writer, trains people for unemployment through:

• A narrow focus on academic disciplines,
• Discouraging life-long learning,
• Creating dependence rather than promoting self-reliance,
• Limiting education to what is available in schools or can be organized by teachers,
• Failing to recognize the disconnect between schools and the rest of life,
• De-emphasizing such important life skills as self-reliance, problem solving,
entrepreneurship and creativity, and
• Avoiding programs that emphasize preparation for a career, except careers that one enters after university study.

What roles do schools have, if any, in offering non-academic educational experiences? If they have a role, it needs to be clearly identified, and reported through school transcripts. Accepting the larger role will result in some significant changes in the school system. Continued blurring the lines may work to the advantage of educational institutions but certainly is detrimental to learners and society at large.

Dr Don Glendenning is president-founder of Holland College (PEI) and one of Canada's most acknowledged authorities in the field of education and vocational training.