What is education? Different people will have different answers to this. We might as well first take a look at how some famous writers and classics "define" education:

Plato: "What is education? Education is training for later life. It can make people good. So as to act noblely", "We can conclude that education is not, as some people say, they can put knowledge into the empty mind, as if they can put vision into the eyes of the blind", education is "the soul 's turn".

Comenius: "We have seen that the seeds of knowledge, virtue, and piety are born in us, but the actual knowledge, virtue, and piety are not so given to us. It should be Obtained from prayer, education, and action...In fact, only after receiving proper education can a person become a person. "Education is a preparation for life and can be completed before adulthood."

< p>Froebel: "Human education is to inspire and teach man, as a self-awakening, thinking and rational creature, to consciously and self-determinedly and perfectly express the inner law, that is, the spirit of God, and to indicate Ways and means to achieve this goal. "The purpose of education is to express a life that is loyal to one's calling, pure, and perfect, and therefore a sacred life."

Pestalozzi: "The entire education of man." It is the art of promoting the development of nature in its own way." "Education means the development of the complete human being."

Spencer: "Education can be seen from the biological side of education. It is a process that perfects the structure of an organism and makes it suitable for life. "Education is to prepare people for life." Dewey said: "Education is life" and "education is growth." , "Education is the reorganization and transformation of experience", "School is society".

Bagley: “We define social evolution as the progressive process of accumulating and refining human knowledge. In the broadest sense, education is the process of transmitting this knowledge, or education is the process of transmitting human knowledge. The process of knowledge accumulation that has permanent immortal value."

Spranger: "Education is a cultural process."

Liang Qichao: "What is education?" Education is about teaching people to learn to be a modern person."

Tao Xingzhi: "Life is education."

In the International Standard Classification of Education of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. Definition: "Education is the work of imparting knowledge in an organized and continuous manner."

"Encyclopedia of China, Education" (1985): "In a broad sense, anything that enhances people's knowledge and Skills and activities that affect people’s ideological and moral character are all education”; “Education in a narrow sense mainly refers to school education, which means that educators conduct purposeful, planned and organized education according to the requirements of a certain society (or class). "Activities that exert influence on the minds and bodies of educated people and cultivate them into the people needed by a certain society (class)"; "The word education is sometimes used as a synonym for ideological and moral education."

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It can be seen from the above expressions that these famous classics choose different perspectives when defining education. Some regard education as an institution, such as school education; some regard education as an action (activity); some regard education as a content; some regard education as a product.

What is education? What is education? Education why? This is the basic question of education, or the essential question of education. This is an important issue that has not yet been solved in educational scientific research. According to statistics, from the British thinker Bacon to the important UNESCO document "Learning to Survive", there are as many as 65 expressions of the concept of education within the scope of the collected literature. Jaspers said in his book "What is Education": "The purpose of education is to make yourself clear about the nature of current education and your own will. Apart from this, the purpose of education cannot be found." Let yourself know It is difficult to understand the essence of education clearly.

Since the founding of New China, people have no doubt that "education is a special superstructure". This also leads to the conclusion that "education is a tool of class struggle". Sometimes education as a "tool of class struggle" and education as a "tool of production struggle" are even regarded as mutually incompatible education.

As the focus of national work shifts to economic construction, the corresponding shift in the focus of education work has also become a general trend. Objectively, it is required to re-understand the nature of education, and the discussion of "the nature of education" came into being.

In 1978, Yu Guangyuan was the first to question the assertion that education is reduced to a superstructure in his article "Research on Emphasis on Cultivating People". Since 1979, the educational community has been discussing the so-called "essence of education." In this discussion, the following views emerged: first, the theory that "part of education belongs to the superstructure, and part does not belong to the superstructure"; second, the theory that "education belongs to productivity"; third, "education belongs to the superstructure" " Said; Fourthly, "Education is a special social practice activity" said...

In specific practice, people are more concerned about such a question: What kind of education is good education? This is such a question, and people have different answers because of their different understandings of education and their different ideals of education. For example, should education meet the needs of society, or should it promote people's own development? In the long run, the two are unified, but in different periods of historical development, they are often contradictory.

In fact, any definition of education cannot be true and objective. It cannot escape the narrator’s knowledge background, thoughts and feelings, and cannot avoid the narrator’s value pursuit. Different understandings of society and human nature, different social status and life experiences, different values ??and ways of looking at problems, will lead to different definitions of education. Therefore, their definition of education may often be what they want education to be like.