undereducate

English

Etymology

From under- +‎ educate.

Pronunciation

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Verb

undereducate (third-person singular simple present undereducates, present participle undereducating, simple past and past participle undereducated)

1. (transitive) To provide an inadequate education.
   • 1984, Hershel D. Thornburg, Introduction to Educational Psychology, page 509:

     Throughout this decade, education must be increasingly upgraded and relevant. To fail to identify important human and societal needs is to undereducate students.

   • 1986, Les Sternberg, Ronald L. Taylor, Jeffrey Schilit, So You're Not a Special Educator:

     A basic problem with the educable mentally retarded person is that we still do not know what his ultimate learning potential is and, as a result, we often undereducate this person.