摘录：美国人通常认为上学是为了受教育。然而现在却有人认为孩子们上学打断了他们受教育的过程。这种言论中所暗示的上学和受教育之间的区别非常重要。

It is commonly believed in United States that school is where people go to get an education. Nevertheless, it has been said that today children interrupt their education to go to school. The distinction between schooling and education implied by this remark is important.

Education is much more open-ended and all-inclusive than schooling. Education knows no bounds. It can take place anywhere, whether in the shower or in the job, whether in a kitchen or on a tractor. It includes both the formal learning that takes place in schools and the whole universe of informal learning.

美国人通常认为上学是为了受教育。然而现在却有人认为孩子们上学打断了他们受教育的过程。这种言论中所暗示的上学和受教育之间的区别非常重要。

与上学相比，教育更开放，更广泛。教育没有任何限制。它可以在任何场合下进行，不论是在淋浴时还是在工作时，不论是在厨房里还是在拖拉机上。它既包括在学校所受的正规教育，也包括一切非正规教育。

The agents of education can range from a revered grandparent to the people debating politics on the radio, from a child to a distinguished scientist. Whereas schooling has a certain predictability, education quite often produces surprises. A chance conversation with a stranger may lead a person to discover how little is known of other religions.

传授知识的人可以是德高望重的老者，也可以是收音机里进行政治辩论的人们，可以是小孩子，也可以是著名的科学家。鉴于上学有一定的预见性，教育却往往能带来意外的发现。与陌生人的一次偶然谈话可能会使人认识到自己对其它宗教其实所知甚少。

People are engaged in education from infancy on. Education, then, is a very broad, inclusive term. It is a lifelong process, a process that starts long before the start of school, and one that should be an integral part of one’s entire life.

人们从幼时起就开始受教育。因此，教育是一个非常宽泛而内涵丰富的词。它是一个终生的过程，在上学之前就开始了，并且应成为人一生中不可或缺的一部分。

Schooling, on the other hand, is a specific, formalized process, whose general pattern varies little from one setting to the next. Throughout a country, children arrive at school at approximately the same time, take assigned seats, are taught by an adult, use similar textbooks, do homework, take exams, and so on.

相反，上学却是一个特定的确定的过程，在不同环境下它的基本形式大同小异。在全国各地，孩子们几乎在同一时间到校，坐在指定座位上，由一位成年人讲授课程，用相似的教材，做作业，考试等等。

The slices of reality that are to be learned, whether they are the alphabet or an understanding of the working of government, have usually been limited by the boundaries of the subject being taught. For example, high school students know that there not likely to find out in their classes the truth about political problems in their communities or what the newest filmmakers are experimenting with. There are definite conditions surrounding the formalized process of schooling.

他们所学的现实生活中的一些片断，无论是字母表还是对政府运作的理解，往往受到科目范围的限制。 例如，高中生们知道，在课堂上他们没法弄清楚他们社区里政治问题的真相，也不会了解到最新潮的电影制片人在做哪些尝试。上学这一确定的过程是有特定的限制的。