by Elisabeth Rose Gruner

About Elisabeth Rose Gruner

Elisabeth Rose Gruner is Associate Professor of English and Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies at the University of Richmond, where she also coordinates the first-year seminar program. Her essays on children’s literature have appeared in The Lion and the Unicorn and Children’s Literature; her current research is on education, fantasy, and intertextuality in children’s and young adult literature.

Education

book Keywords for Children's Literature

In both Keywords (Williams 1983a) and New Keywords (Bennett, Grossberg, and Morris 2005), “education” (Keywords has “educate”) is primarily an institutional practice, which, after the late eighteenth century, is increasingly formalized and universalized in Western countries. Bearing the twin senses of “to lead forth” (from the Latin educere) and “to bring up” (from the Latin educare), “education” appears chiefly as an action practiced by adults on children. The Oxford English Dictionary thus defines the term as “the systematic instruction, schooling, or training given to the young in preparation for the work of life.”