Selected Definitions of

Education

Education is to give the soul and

the body all the beauty and perfection
of which they are susceptible.
Plato
Education is the attainment of
happiness through perfect virtue.
Aristotle

Education is a natural, symmetrical

and harmonious development of the
faculties of the child.
Pestalozzi
Education is the art of constructing,
of building, of giving the required
forms. The aim of education is
conceived as the development of
morality or virtue, for intellect and
morality are two connected entities.
Herbart

The function of education is to

prepare for a complete life.
Spencer
To educate is to form men who are
truly free.
Sotelli
To educate is to complete a man.
Manjon

The work of education is nothing less

than the noble and great mission of
making the image of God resplendent in
man.
Dupanloup
Education is the rationally conducted
evolution of the specific faculties of
man.
Rufino Blanco

Education is the action of the spirit

over oneself or another directed
towards an objective ideal which is
instructive information and educative
formation.
Zaragueta
To educate is to help a man attain
human maturity.
J. Tusquets

Education is a twofold operation, in

which two persons are involved: the
educator, who consciously stimulates,
guides and promotes the expansion
and development of the whole being of
the educand; As a consequence, the
educand, following the guidelines
marked out by the educator in the
development of his whole being,
moves on to perfect himself.
Pedro Poveda

Education is a qualitative perfecting

of the faculties of man by which he
becomes apt in the proper exercise of
his specific operations.
Gonzales Alvarez
Education is the intentional
perfecting of the specific faculties of
man.
Garcia Hoz

Education is the deliberate and

systematic influence exerted by the mature
person upon the immature through
instruction, discipline and the harmonious
development of all the powers of the human
being physical, social, intellectual,
aesthetic and spiritual according to their
essential hierarchy, and for the individual
and social uses, and directed to the union of
the educand with his Creator as the final
end.
John Redden and Francis Ryan

To educate is to cooperate with the

divine grace in forming the perfect
Christian.
Pius XI
Education shall be directed to the
full development of human personality.
UN Declaration of Human Rights

True education aims at the

formation of the human person in view
of his final end at the same time its
purpose includes the good of those
societies of which is a member.

Vatican IIs Declaration on

Christian Education

The UNESCOs vision of education in

the new millennium was explained in its
Report entitled: Learning: the Treasure
Within. It stated that the school system
must be directed more toward personal
fulfillment and identified the four pillars
of education as follows:

Learning to know: This type of learning

is both a means and an ends. A means
to understand and the world around us
as well as an end, the joy of knowing.
Learning to do: This requires not only
learning an occupational skill but also a
personal competence to deal with many
situations and work in teams.

Learning to live together: Developing

an understanding of other people and
an appreciation of interdependence.
Thus education must tend to be at the
service of avoiding conflicts or resolve
them peacefully by developing respect
for other cultures and their spiritual
values.

Learning to be: All human beings must

be enabled to develop independent
critical thinking and form their own
judgment, in order to determine for
themselves what they believe they
should do in the different
circumstances of life.

Education is seen as a ferment of

the ongoing maturity of personality.
The UNESCO International Commission
on Education in the 21st Century gives
this interesting definition of Education:

Education is above all an inner

journey.