Education has long been supposed to take place in schools. It has been of natural consequence, therefore, that educational discourse has mainly attended to whether what happened in schools was worthy of being called education. Educational discourse have traditionally concerned the tensions between the schooling in reality and the schooling as being supposed to be ‘education.’ The tradition of this educational discourse lose its point, however, when education is defined without referring to schooling, which is what Chang SangHo asserted with regard to the meaning of education. This article explores the implications of Chang’s conceptualization of education for the traditional conception of education. By ridding conceptually education of schooling, Chang SangHo disregards the connectedness of education with schooling, hence eventually with society. By reviewing the history of schooling, from initiation rituals in prehistoric society to modern schools today, the article examines what are the properties of education in the traditional discourse, which would be left out by adopting Chang SangHo’s conception of education. It asks whether it would be reasonable to define education as having not to do with human survival and prosperity at the societal level.