People interested in teaching usually make a distinction between formal and informal education. Formal education, of course, is what virtually all of us have gone through—or in the thought of many, have been subjected to. Schools, from kindergarten through graduate, and all their kin, are the formal education entities; structured to the "T" in most cases.
So what's informal education? Ideally, it's sneaky education.
No, in this case, sneaky is not a bad word. It merely means educating in such a way
that the student doesn't really realize that it's education. With little
structure and a minimum of rules, it's teaching that fakes you into learning
without knowing it because it's interesting—and how many of us would think to use
that word for much of formal schooling? But at El Paso's museums, gardens, zoo, and
science center, ignore to your heart's content what doesn't grab your interest,
bury yourself in that which does. Learning by osmosis, learning by doing, learning by
the natural curiosity that's so much of child—of whatever age. Now, that's
education—informal education, that is!
Contributor: Arthur H. Harris, Laboratory for Environmental Biology, Centennial Museum, University of Texas at El Paso.
Desert Diary is a joint production of the Centennial Museum and KTEP National Public Radio at the University of Texas at El Paso.