Education is a social activity to cultivate people purposefully, which is the fundamental feature that distinguishes education from other things and the essence of education, that is, the qualitative stipulation of education. To understand the essence of education, we should grasp the following key points.
First, "social activities". This reflects the sociality of education. On the one hand, education is a unique activity of human beings, and there is no education in the animal kingdom. Animal learning and animal breeding are not education. For example, a little monkey learns to jump, and a hen takes a chicken. On the other hand, people's innate instinct is not education. For example, newborns breast-feed and knee spasms.
Second, "cultivate people." "Educating people" emphasizes making people develop in a good direction. The influence of mechanical indoctrination and wrong ideas is not education. For example, fathers train their children how to retaliate against bullies with blows.
Third, "purposeful". Education is different from aimless and unconscious activities, and its direct goal is to influence and develop people's body and mind. But not all activities that affect people's physical and mental development are education, and those unintentional accidental influences are not education. For example, a child accidentally put his hand on a flame and was burned, thus gaining knowledge about fire. For example, fire is hot and can burn people.
The essence of education
Social attribute of education
1. Immortality
Education and human society go hand in hand. As long as human society exists, education will exist.
2. It's true
Historicity is embodied in the times and class nature.
Epoch mainly means that the development of education is restricted by the development level of productive forces in different times, which makes education in different times have different characteristics; And the education of the same era has its common characteristics.
Class nature mainly refers to the problem of which class to train the educated as successors, that is, who education serves. The class nature of education is determined by the ruling class in a certain society, which is reflected in the sociality of education.
3. Relative independence
The operation law of education is subject to the development law of social politics, economy, culture and people, but education also has its own development law, showing certain relative independence. The relativity of education is mainly manifested in the following two aspects.
(1) Education has a historical heritage.
Historical inheritance means that the education of each era has a relationship of inheritance and continuation with the previous education. The ideas, systems, objectives, contents, methods and means of education in a certain social form are all produced on the basis of inheriting and surpassing the education in previous social forms.
(2) Education and social, political and economic development are unbalanced.
The development of education reflects and is subject to the politics, economy and culture of a certain society, but its development and change are not completely synchronized with social development, and it may be "ahead" or "behind" the development level of social subsystems such as politics, economy and culture.