While doing some research, I came across this letter from the Congregation for Catholic Education, published in 2009, that offered this brief but substantive assessment of the nature of education, which I thought was as good a definition as I've read of the nature of the academic enterprise:
Education today is a complex task, which is made more difficult by rapid social, economic, and cultural changes. Its specific mission remains the integral formation of the human person. Children and young people must be guaranteed the possibility of developing harmoniously their own physical, moral, intellectual and spiritual gifts, and they must also be helped to develop their sense of responsibility, learn the correct use of freedom, and participate actively in social life...
