The document begins by identifying three historical roots of the development of nonformal education: traditional out-of-school educators, international educational planners, and the critics of education. The paper then proposes a way to define nonformal education using a series of criteria. The next section focuses on strategies of implementation, contrasting person-centered and system-centered approaches. A subsequent section discusses the three major US sources of academic writing about nonformal education. The paper then looks at examples from Latin America, inspired by Freire and other critics; in Africa motivated by the need to reach the large numbers of out-of-school children; and finally, in Asia where efforts focus on agriculture and community development. The paper concludes with a discussion of the future of nonformal education.