La Educación a lo largo de la vidala Educación social, la Educación escolar, la Educación continua... todas son Educaciones formales

Abstract

The fact of referring to a type of education as non-formal or informal is certainly negative, pejorative and, maybe, ideological. Therefore, it is not only a mere question of names. The lack of shape means to have only potential and, consequently, to be nothing. Positive talk is a must: social education, school education, continuing education All of them are included in «lifelong education», which corresponds to the Greek concept of paideia.Although any type of education is or must be social, when we talk about social education we refer to an accidental specification, intensification and/or topologization. Sometimes social education is differentiated from education, whose aim is, on the one hand, the activation of the educational conditions provided by culture and social life and, on the other, the prevention, compensation or re-education of the difficulty and social conflict. This is done within the general framework that constitutes the aim of any type of education: integration. It is necessary to accept that education is not the sole responsibility of the school and therefore, to try flexible ways that make possible the relational and joint work of school education and social education. Apart from this, it is also necessary to assume, with all its consequences, that the school is but another key fact and not the only one in that continuum known as lifelong education. This will prevent the school from becoming a sanctuary deeply entrenched in the community to which it should belong.