Education in a narrow sense refers to specially organized school education; Broadly speaking, it refers to social practice activities that affect people's physical and mental development. Latin educare is the source of the word "education" in the west, which means "education".

The basic characteristics of education are as follows:

(1) Connotation: The so-called essence of education refers to the fundamental feature that education, as a social activity, is different from other social activities, that is, the question of "what is education". It reflects the inherent stipulation of educational activities, that is, the fundamental characteristics of educational activities.

(2) Four views on the essence of education: superstructure theory; Productivity theory; Special category theory; Multiple attribute theory.

(3) The fifth viewpoint about the nature of education, "consciousness substitution theory":

In Tang Zhen's view, the essence of cultural education can be summarized as: teaching new individuals ways and means to deal with objects with the knowledge we have mastered about our objects and their relationships.

It is a process in which one consciousness changes another consciousness. The collision, running-in, infiltration and change between consciousness is a process in which one consciousness covers or even destroys another consciousness, which may cause pain to individuals. Because any two individuals face different objects, there will be differences or conflicts in the consciousness gained from different objects, and the recipients of cultural and educational activities will have certain exclusion.

In the real society, in order to weaken the rejection psychology of the recipients, first of all, educational activities are mainly carried out between the young and the old. Older people (or those who get knowledge first) generally live in the position of educators, while younger people (or those who get knowledge later) lack knowledge, like a whiteboard, so they are educated. The second is to induce through utilitarianism and other means.

For example, in ancient times, there was a call for "learning to be an excellent official", and today there is a call for educational goals such as "knowledge is wealth", so that educational activities can be carried out normally.