\u201cEducation\u201d and \u201clearning\u201d seem to be used as synonymous in many instances. One would hear phrases such as \u201cHigher Education institutions\u201d for universities and \u201cLearning Centers\u201d for places in those institutions where people supposedly are involved in acquiring some required knowledge, or one would hear sentences such as \u201cYou go to school to learn \u201c and \u201cI teach them to learn mathematics.\u201d If they are not used synonymously, one word often seems to involve the other. Nevertheless, as I go through their etymology, it appears to me that to settle on a clear distinction between them might not be a straightforward task.<\/p>\n
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A Latin word for the verb form of learning is accipere <\/em>meaning to take, to receive, to accept with the senses or with the mind. This has been the meaning I have expected as learning seems to be about this moment of absorbing and processing new information where both the senses and the mind are involved. For instance, one reads <\/em>a proof to understand<\/em> a theory, or one strikes <\/em>the keyboard, listens <\/em>to sounds, and reads <\/em>notes to play the piano. Another Latin word that connects learning with the idea of acquiring something is percipere <\/em>meaning to collect, to take in with the senses or the mind.<\/p>\n For \u201ceducation,\u201d I was somewhat surprised since the verb form educere<\/em>, meaning to rear, to raise, to bring up, does not seem to have anything to do with learning. Of the same family are ducere<\/em>, meaning to lead, and docere, <\/em>meaning to teach, which might explain its association with learning. Then, educere <\/em>might suggest the need for a knowledgeable guide who supposedly is qualified to rear or guide others, who might view this guide as an authority figure. Indeed, doctus, <\/em>meaning learned, well-informed, from which I guess we get \u201cdoctor\u201d, seems to confirm this interpretation. Other ramifications of docere <\/em>further elucidate this association of education to the idea of power relation: its meaning of \u201cto instruct\u201d and words such as doctrina, <\/em>meaning teaching, instruction, and, more explicitly, disciplina, <\/em>with link to \u201cmilitary training,\u201d are suggestive examples. Docere <\/em>also reminds me of the Greek word \u03b4\u03bf\u03be\u03b1<\/em> (doxa) meaning opinion, and \u201cto opine\u201d comes from the Greek word \u03bd\u03bf\u03bc\u03b9\u03b6\u03b5\u03b9\u03bd<\/em> (nomizein) from which comes \u03bd\u03bf\u03bc\u03bf\u03c2<\/em> (nomos), meaning \u201claw.\u201d Now, this idea of a doctus<\/em> guide leading other people by making them observe some rules designed with some intention seems to call for the idea of an institution, which could be seen as some complex constructed environment where this authority is practiced.<\/p>\n So, what would that say about education? While the act of \u201ceducating\u201d appears to involve some learning in the sense that an authority figure gives instructions to other people who \u201ctake in\u201d these rules, the act of learning does not seem to necessarily call for any guide. For example, George Boole is reported to not have had a \u201cformal\u201d university education yet has significantly contributed to mathematical logic. Furthermore, there is some kind of informality that seems to benefit learning while education, on the contrary, seems to call for a set of defined rules that may or may not encourage learning: think of our modern edifice of codes associated with education, such as fixed semesters, standard exams, constant data collection and reports, and letter grades. Could this level of informality imply that learning is independent or could be free from any institution? Or to put it differently: does one need to subscribe to any formal institution to learn anything? Furthermore, does education, seen as a set of rules with intended goals from some authorities, necessarily encourage learning at all?<\/p>\n In the context of mathematics, similar questions could be asked. Could activities considered as part of mathematics education be seen as encouraging learning mathematics? In what sense to want a large group of people to uniformly take exams under several constraints in order to gather data could be seen as an effort to make these people learn mathematics? Ultimately, does \u201cto teach mathematics,\u201d as a set of rules and computations considered as useful by some people, necessarily intends to make people learn mathematics?<\/p>\n So, what do you think?<\/p>\n References<\/strong><\/p>\n William Whitacre\u2019s Latin Dictionary: http:\/\/www.archives.nd.edu\/cgi-bin\/wordes.exe<\/a>.<\/p>\n The University of Chicago Library Woodhouse\u2019s English-Greek Dictionary: http:\/\/artflx.uchicago.edu\/cgi-bin\/efts\/dicos\/woodhouse_test.pl?pagenumber=724&pageturn=1<\/a><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n