In general terms, one is taught by instruction or by example, and one is taught by one's parents and family; in one's place of work; and in special social institutions, normally called schools or universities. What one acquires when one is taught are generally beliefs and values.

It should be noted that it takes some fourteen to twenty years to educate a human being to the extent that he or she is capable of functioning more or less properly in society, and to play the common roles in it (as of: citizen, man, woman, doctor, lawyer, milkman, nurse).