Due to the nature of history itself, it is difficult to understand the history of prehistoric education, or of education in early historical periods as it pertains to skills other than writing. It is certain that there have long been systems for passing down knowledge to new generations, and there is strong evidence that these systems of instruction were not limited to parents teaching their own children. That said, language education is a core skill in known formal educational systems from the very earliest known formalized school, during Egypt's Middle Kingdom, until today. For large parts of history in many geographic regions, learning to read and write was the core reason to attend school, and the knowledge that language-learning allowed access to was often considered secondary.

Schools have also always been places for cultural education. This is reflected in many ways: in addition to language, early schools on the Indian subcontinent taught the Vedas, schools in China taught Confucian values, and schools in the Islamic world taught philosophy and theology. This function of education continues today, and there are significant discourses about the ways that knowledge, especially in history and the humanities—but also, more insidiously, in science disciplines—is structured in ways that communicate cultural beliefs rather than factual information.