The concept of Meta-Education was first raised by Richard Hamming in his work *The Art of Doing Science and Engineering*. > In a real sense I am engaged in “meta-education”; the topic of the course is education itself, and hence our discussions must rise above it—“metaeducation,” just as metaphysics was supposed to be “above” physics in Aristotle’s time (actually “follow”; “transcend” is the translation of “meta”). Following Hamming, I define meta-education as the education of education. In response to meta-education is meta-learning -- the learning of learning. --- Traditional education, or education in the narrow sense, is *how to do something* -- how to write an essay, how to solve a function, how to use a model to analyze a situation. Meta-education, on the other hand, is *what, when, and why to do things*. It is about critically examining the relationship between knowledge and the foundations of our existence, and reflecting on the purpose and direction of our learning. - We may be able to write a strong academic paper, meta-education prompts us to consider what topics are worth exploring and to what end. - We may use the demand-supply model to explain price fluctuations, but meta-education asks: _When does this model capture economic reality, when does it obscure deeper dynamics, and what new frameworks are needed for phenomena it cannot explain?_ - We may learn how to run statistical regressions, but meta-education asks: _Which questions are worth quantifying, when does quantification illuminate reality, and when does it flatten it?_ - We may know how to optimize supply chains, but meta-education questions: _What should be optimized—profit, resilience, sustainability, or justice—and at what cost?_ --- True education must transcend its own boundaries, becoming self-reflective and self-critical—much as metaphysics stands above and examines the principles of physics. True learning is meaning-guided. Learning is fundamentally connected with the very conditions of one'slife and the world at large -- and thus must address the big quetsions that life raises to use individuals.