1. The essence of education refers to the fundamental relationship between the internal elements of education and the fundamental characteristics of education as a social activity that distinguishes it from other social activities. As opposed to "educational phenomenon". Education is an activity to cultivate people. Education has existed since the beginning of human society, and its function is to transmit social production and life experience, promote human development and cultivate talents needed by society according to certain social requirements.

2. Education is to cultivate people. First of all, education is a unique social activity of human beings. Education is to cultivate people, not animals. Therefore, animal-related activities such as "teaching monkeys to ride bicycles" do not belong to education; Second, education is training. Cultivation is growth, and cultivation is development. From the first second of our birth to every second in the future, we are changing and developing. In other words, we are educated every minute of our lives. This coincides with the concepts of "lifelong learning" and "learning society" advocated at present.

Finally, education is a social activity.

3. The essence of education is teaching and educating people, which is the task of school education and the responsibility of teachers. This is true, but school education is not the whole of education, nor can it cover and locate the essence of education.

Mutuality. Although education is mainly manifested in the inheritance from generation to generation, that is, the education of the older generation to the next generation, it does not exclude the education and influence of the younger generation to the elders and the younger generation to the elders. The so-called teaching and learning learn from each other, in order to distinguish between true and false, so that the educational inheritance is getting better and better.