This article presents three metaphors that have come to typify formal schooling particularly in the West of United States. It is a third article in a series based on the author’s W. H. Griffith Thomas Memorial Lectures at Dallas Theological Seminary (February 9-12, 1982). The paper argues that the essence of education, what it conveys and how it can be used are very important issues that should be clarified. The paper also defends that education suffers from over-popularity, because everyone has experienced it in one or many of its forms and everyone thinks they “know” what education is. This is why very few people wonder about the so many ill-advised assaults on the human spirit that are passed off as worthy educational ventures. Finally, the paper evaluates each way of conceptualizing education based on three essentially different metaphors of education that account for most of the thinking, planning, and operation of formal education in terms of the Christian concern for spiritual development.