The study aims to examine the discussions raised in school character education based on Polanyi’s epistemology and to suggest a desirable direction of character education. Social needs for character education are increasing, but it is simply seen as the answer to social problems. As a result, the importance of the original purpose of character education is overlooked. In addition, the discussions surrounding character education are a narrow view of knowledge acquisition and character building, which leads to the misunderstanding that school education is related to cognitive ability, and character education is related to values and virtues. Polanyi’s epistemology shows that knowledge is composed of cognitive abilities, theory, values, passion, motivation, etc. Therefore knowing is defined as ‘personal knowledge’. In this respect, knowledge acquisition is like the formation of the mind. Polanyi's perception will serve as a cognitive basis to explain that gaining knowledge through education involves developing character.