Paideia

The Greek term paideia refers to education looked upon as a lifelong transformation of the human personality, in which every aspect of life plays a part. Unlike education in the traditional sense, paideia does not limit itself to the conscious learning processes, or to inducting the young into the social heritage of the community. By considering character formation and the appreciation of values of equal importance as the acquiring of knowledge, it becomes the task of giving form to the act of living itself: treating every occasion of life as a means of self-fabrication, and as part of a larger process of converting facts into values, processes into purposes, hopes and plans into consummations and realizations. It is therefore not merely learning: it is a making and a shaping; and man himself is the work of art that paideia seeks to form. Some leisure activities, particularly those with an element of risk or uncertainty, may be considered a necessary part of paideia as they allow for creative expression and may lead to flow experience and ego-transcendence.