What is education? Broadly defined, education occurs any time a human being actively engages itself in the world around them. That individual is subjectively experiencing and participating in their education. Of course, the key word here is actively. To educate oneself, we must maintain a level of awareness and interaction in order to take away meaningful learning.

Learning is a different term describing education. Learning is defined in psychology as any relatively permanent change in behavior resulting from experience. We make decisions, we experience things, situations, smells, tastes, colors, sounds, textures, and emotions, and if we actively concentrate on the results of those experiences then we become more educated. Now, that is just the beginning. Certainly, we as human beings also learn from books, from formal and informal teachers, lectures, quizzes and tests; as well as through daily communication and dialogues with family, peers, and role models. This type of education is highly regarded among many cultures, and in most cases leads to more rewarding and financially secure careers. Normally, formal education begins in one's early childhood with Pre-School or Kindergarten before moving into Elementary or Grammar School. Those years are spent developing concepts and abilities deemed important for survival further down the road. Students may then graduate into Middle School or High school, where more difficult concepts and principles are taught to further prepare people for jobs or colleges. These years may provide understandable difficulties for the pupils, especially those with hopes of being admitted into institutes of advanced instruction whose requirements may demand lofty standards for their incoming classes. Technical schools, Junior Colleges, and Four-Year Colleges may be the last step in many students' formal learning. Many Universities and some Colleges offer more than Associate's or Bachelor's Degrees. There are Graduate, Medical and Legal schools, as well as Ph. D programs which require many studious years of devoted scholarship.

In contrast to strict, formal education, some cultures may have no school buildings, books, or formal teachers. This does not mean there is no education. It truly remains the responsibility of the individual to take away meaningful lessons from all experiences to become educated.