what is education

i happened to read pallavi's write up on education and i remembered this story.
a father was taking two kids for a walk. Don't ask which road for you cannot see any roads now a days walkable or even if there is a road somewhere with no vehicles, i canbe sure that youshould be a man with no nose.
While walking a child jumped on a round black lid. the lid was made of blackstone. Dum dum a sound. after one or two jumpings it went ahead walking. But the second kid when it heard the dum dum sound. it stopped and began questioning the father. the father then begins to explain the way of sanitation and why the cities were clean etc etc. The lid was the openings of these sanitation pipes underneath the ground and people can repair.
So education is for kids who can think.
Oliver goldsmith once wrote that he studied in the University of Passing Humanity (sitting on the roadside and watching people) but that has lot of meaning.
The story of Padmavyuh is known to all. The child could learn only half while it was in the womb.
Lord Muruga learned the meaning of Omkara when he was in the womb of his mother.

While i was class first from nursery to third standard, i was not upto the mark from 4th to 10th. I was third or fourth in the entire college for my pre degree. The astrologers say it is budha mandyam or so.
Swami Vivekananda could memorise a whole book by just looking at the pages. But he says that education is the unlearning of mundane things and it is the manifestation of the inner self.
I learned purusha suktham by just repeating while i was at the age of 10 whereas i could understand some of the words only when i was 18.
When some parents and teachers give thrashings to their children, i have felt sorry because i believe that it is not their fault.

so what is education..when it starts..