re-educationn.
/ˌriːɛdjᵿˈkeɪʃn/, /rɪˌɛdjᵿˈkeɪʃn/, /ˌriːɛdʒᵿˈkeɪʃn/, /rɪˌɛdʒᵿˈkeɪʃn/, U.S. /riˌɛdʒəˈkeɪʃən/ 1. The action or process of re-educating or retraining a person, esp. so as to change his or her beliefs or behaviour.From the mid 20th cent. often associated with programmes for the internment of political dissidents in some authoritarian societies, esp. communist China and Vietnam.
ΘΚΠ
society > education > [noun] > re-education
re-education1833
1833 Foreign Q. Rev. 12 71 If we look farther into the schemes of these benevolent visionaries, it will be found they reckon upon a re-education of the whole habits of the man, moral and intellectual.
1888 Voice (N.Y.) 2 Feb. A..Theological Seminary for their re-education.
1944 J. S. Huxley On Living in Revol. 151 This gang has succeeded in imposing its ideas on a considerable minority of the German people, and..this constitutes a grave problem of re-education.
1945 ‘G. Orwell’ Animal Farm iii. 26 He formed..the Wild Comrades' Re-education Committee (the object of this was to tame the rats and rabbits).
1955 Treatment of Brit. P.O.W.'s in Korea (H.M.S.O.) 4 The Chinese technique of ‘re-education’ embraced every phase of daily life in the prison camps.
1997 GQ Sept. 198/2 If we tourists are indeed born stupid, luckily, in Sarajevo, re-education is close at hand.
2. The process of restoring normal movement or other bodily function, esp. after injury.
ΚΠ
1879 Lancet 19 Apr. 551/2 It cannot re-establish the rhythmical function of natural sleep, and cure by re-education in the process of sleeping alone remains.
1899 T. C. Allbutt et al. Syst. Med. VII. 578 The re-education of the sense of hearing.
1906 Trans. Assoc. Amer. Physicians 21 724 Re-education is undoubtedly one of the most important factors in producing lasting cures.
1974 N. Freeling Dressing of Diamond 133 A year of physiotherapy..in a re-education centre.
1997 Nexus (Boulder, Colorado) Mar.–Apr. 34/4 The Alexander Technique..claims to be a ‘subtle, hands-on, psycho-physical method of neuro-muscular re-education’.
Compounds
re-education camp n. a camp used for the internment and ideological retraining of political dissidents in some authoritarian societies, esp. communist China and Vietnam.
ΚΠ
1935 Oakland (Calif.) Tribune 17 July 3/6 The German Government has taken drastic measures against those returning,..confining them in ‘re-education camps’.
1951 A. Koestler Age of Longing ix. 337 You don't like revolutionary vigilance,..and discipline, and re-education camps.
1977 Time 9 May 22/1 Also targetted for resettlement are most of the 30,000 political prisoners the regime admits are still interned in ‘re-education’ camps.
2008 Times (Nexis) 22 Apr. 34 Opposition workers..have reported the setting-up of ‘re-education camps’..where people are rounded up, taken and beaten into declaring their support for Mr Mugabe's ruling Zanu (PF) party.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2009; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1833