Final answer:
While formal education contributes to our knowledge of cultural facts and academic concepts, informal education is integral to learning cultural values, norms, and behaviors through lived experiences and societal interactions. Informal learning often fills in the gaps left by formal education, which may not encompass the diversity of cultures. Both formal and informal education contribute to the process of enculturation in society.
Step-by-step explanation:
The question poses an examination of how cultural knowledge is acquired, and suggests that a significant portion of what we learn about our native culture is through formal education. However, this view overlooks the critical role that informal education plays in imparting cultural values, norms, and behaviors. Informal learning begins at home and continues within the society through direct interactions with family, peers, and communal institutions. We learn to navigate cultural expectations through everyday activities, such as how to dress for various occasions, food preparation, maintaining hygiene, and understanding professional tasks and customs. While formal education, originating from ancient Greek scholars and later becoming widely accessible during the Industrial Revolution, focuses on academic concepts through a structured curriculum, it is often informal education that enriches and contextualizes our understanding of culture.
Moreover, formal education can sometimes be insufficient as it may focus on mainstream or well-known cultures, potentially overlooking the diversity of other civilizations' histories and arts. Teachers, including those schooled in post-apartheid South Africa, often discover indigenous art forms out of instructional necessity, relying on the knowledge of students who might be more familiar with such cultural expressions. Thus, learning often occurs outside the traditional educational settings, through a combination of teacher research and student experiences.
Enculturation through various institutions is another aspect of cultural learning. Schools, religious organizations, and media are fundamental in communicating and reinforcing societal norms and values. Even functionalities like written punctuation in language are part of systematic enculturation usually taught in formal education settings.