It is difficult to give answer of ‘What is Education in a few lines. Because the ‘Definition of Education is given differently by different people at different times. Therefore, education cannot be described by one’s precise definition. The definitions given by different educators about its education are given below in stages.

Definition of Education by Different Authors :

  1. According to Socrates “Education means the bring out of the ideas of universal validity which are latent in the mind of every man.”
  2. According to Plato “Education is the capacity to feel pleasure and pain at the right moment it develops in the body and in the soul of the student all the beauty and all the perfection which he capable of.”
  3. According to Aristotle “Education is the creation of a sound mind in a sound body it develop men faculty especially his mind so that he may be able to enjoy the implementation of supreme court goodness and beauty of which perfect happiness essentially consist.”
  4. According to John Dewey “Education is the development of all those capacities in the individual which will enable him to control his environment and fulfil his responsibilities.
  5. According to Heinrich Pestalozzi “Education is natural harmonious and progressive development of man’s innate powers.”
  6. According to Rousseau “Education of man comments at his birth before he can speak, before he can understand he is already instructed. Experience is the the forerunner of precept.”
  7. According to Martin Luther King junior “The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. Intelligence Plus character that is the goal of true education.”
  8. According to H B Adams “Education make” people easy to lead, but difficult to drive, easy to govern but impossible to enslave.
  9. According to Friedrich William Froebel “Education is enfolded of what is already in faltered in the germ. It is the process through which the child makes the internal-external.”
  10. Herbert Spencer “Education is complete living.”
  11. Ulilch Robert  “It ‘Education’ is the constant instruction among people and the objective world.”
  12. William B Yeats “Education is not filling a bucket but lightening a fire.”
  13. Horace Mann “Education must bring the practice as nearly as possible to theory.”
  14. According to J F Herbert “Education is the development of good moral character.”
  15. According to TP Nunn “Education is the complete development of the individuality of the child so that he can make an original contribution to human like according to the best of his capacity.”
  16. If you read Dictionary of Education (edited by C.V. Good, 1973), you will find that education is defined as “the aggregate of all the processes by which a person develops abilities, attitudes and other forms of behaviour of practical values in the society in which s/he lives; the social process by which people are subjected to the influence of selected and controlled environment (especially that of the school), so that they may obtain social competence and optimum individual development”. 
  17. Swami Vivekananda (1863-1902), a great thinker and reformer of India, According to him, “Education is the manifestation of the divine perfection, already existing in man”.
  18. According to Indian educationist as well as great political leader Mahatma Gandhi “By education I mean an all-round drawing out of the best in child and man’s body, mind and spirit.” 
  19. Poet Rabindranath Tagore “The highest education is that which does not merely give us information but makes our life in harmony with all existence.” 
  20. The great thinker Sri Aurobindo has defined education “witch; will offer the tools whereby one can live for the divine, for the country, for oneself and this must be the ideal in every school which call itself national.” 
  21. According to Indian professor Sarvapalli Radhakrishnan “Education according to Indian tradition is not merely a means of earning a living; nor is it only a nursery of thought or a school for citizenship. It is initiation into the life of spirit and training of human souls in the pursuit of truth and the practice of virtue.”
  22. According to Nelson Mandela “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.”
  23. According to Malcolm X “Education is the passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to those who prepare for it today.”
  24. According to Benjamin Franklin “An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.”
  25. M.J. Langeveld – Education is every interaction that happens is every association that occurs between adults with children is a field or a state where the educational work in progress. 
  26. Wikipedia – Education is a conscious and deliberate effort to create an atmosphere of learning and the learning process so that learners are actively developing the potential for him to have the spiritual strength of religious, self-control, personality, intelligence, noble character, and the skills needed themselves and society. 
  27. H.H Horne – In the broadest sense, education is the device by which a social group continued existence renew yourself, and defend his ideas. 
 
    From the different definitions of education given by different educators, it is clear that each educator has defined education based on their own way of life. Therefore, it can be said that no definition of education given by educators is complete.
 

Read More Etymological meaning of the term “EDUCATION”.

 

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References / Further Reading

  • Agarwal J.C (2020) : Philosophical Foundation of Education (Shri Vinod Pustak Mandir).
  • Archibaalt, Reginald : Philosophical Analysis and Education (Oxford University Press, New Delhi).
  • Brubacher, John S. (1971) :Modern Philosophies of Education (Tata McGraw Hill, Pvt., Ltd., New Delhi,). 
  • Chand, Jagdish (2006) : Philosophical Foundation of Education (Shipra Publication).
  • Philosophical and Sociological Perspectives of Education (Atlantic Publishers & Distributors Pvt Ltd).
  • Conner, D.T. (1961) : Introduction to the Philosophy of Education (Methuen and Co., London .).
  • Kneller, G.F. (1963) : Foundations of Education (John Wiley & sons, Inc., New York.,). 
  • Park, Joe (Ed.) (1975) : Philosophy of Education (Sterling Publishers Pvt. Ltd. New Delhi ). 
  • Phenix, P.H.(Ed) (1961) : Philosophies of Education. John Wiley & Sons, New York, . 
  • Prince, Kingsley (1962) : Education and Philosophical Thought (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.).
  • Wingo, G. Max (1975) : Philosophical Bases of Education : An Introduction (Sterling Publishers, Pvt.Ltd. New Delhi, ).
  • Wyan, J.P. (1963) : Theories of Education (Harper & Row Publishers Inc., New York, ).
See also  Definition of Philosophy by Different Philosophers