Education is a term which encompasses the teaching of specific skills, and also something less tangible but more profound: the imparting of knowledge, good judgement and wisdom.
Education begins the minute a baby is born and is life-long. For some, the struggles and triumphs of daily life are far more instructive than formal schooling (Thus Mark Twain: "I never let school interfere with my education.") Family members have an educational effect which is quite profound -- often more profound than they realize -- though family teaching techniques may be highly informal.
Formal education occurs when society makes a commitment to educate people, usually the young. Formal education has the advantage of being fairly systematic and thorough; but critics have always noted that whoever sponsors formal education, be it a church, the state or some other group, that group will almost always seek to shape its impressionable scholars in that image.
In recent years, life-long education has become far more widespread, and many adults have given up their notion that only children belong in school. However - the recent years of technology developments with portable computing devices may change some of the classical places where we do learn - OR where we find knowledge. In some places the learning can happen in real time as we need the knowledge itself. This is the computer based / networked learning structure, where people contribute to each other's education.
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What are our priorities for writing in this area? To help develop a list of the most basic topics in Education, please see Education basic topics.