The term "education" naturally has a very deep and complex root, reflective of the depth of human development and the importance of knowledge in society. Its Latin origin lies in "educare," which means "to bring up" ar "to raise." This etymology reflects much on the nurturing attribute that characterizes education, where human beings are formed and oriented throughout their whole course of intellectual and moral growth.
Education has historically been very strongly associated with transmitting knowledge, values, and culture from one generation to the other. Ancient civilizations, such as Mesopotamia, Egypt, and Greece, portrayed education as a preserve for the elite. This focus was on practical skills like writing, mathematics, and jurisprudence besides the cultural and religious kind of education. Early thinking about education in ancient Greece arguably relied on the writings of philosophers such as Plato and Aristotle, who centered them on reason for the pursuit of truth. For instance, in Plato's notable piece "The Republic," he discussed the concept of an ideal educational system in creating virtuous citizens and capable leaders.
Following this period, the feature of education was entirely under the management of the Church, even including across the scope of the Middle Ages in Europe. Monasteries and cathedral schools became the principal learning centers with religious instruction dominating the scene. Universally, also from this period, it is to be found that the concept of the university will begin to take shape and develop in such cities as Bologna, Paris, and Oxford, which goes on at large to increase the boundary of what scholars could be trained in, ranging from theology to medicine and law.
Here, a very sharp break in educational thought happened with the Enlightenment period in the 17th and 18th centuries, when people like John Locke and Jean-Jacques Rousseau pitched education as a tool of personal enfranchisement and social advancement. According to Locke's "tabula rasa" theory, people are born as blank slates, and thus knowledge and character are an outcome of experiences and learning. Rousseau, in his work "Emile," insisted on natural development, arguing that education should develop only the abilities that the child naturally brought, not impose rigorous instruction on them. The concept of education has become much different in modern times. The rise of public education systems of the 19th and 20th centuries, by democratizing learning, made it accessible to more people. Education today takes the form of formal, non-formal, and informal learning, and most of the states consider it as a basic right. It remains as a fundamental prerequisite considered to be essential for individual development, social upliftment, and economic growth, evidence of its core role in human history and societies.