ABSTRACT
A substantial body of educational work is guided by specific learning objectives, in order to ensure a strong and secure connection between educational inputs and educational outcomes. Vladimir Nabokov is not only highlighting a very important topic which is seldom discussed in education; he also makes room to ask questions about the quality of education, particularly in relation to freedom and possibilities to go beyond reason. Education is given an ethical dimension which, in certain ways, goes beyond Van Veen's conception of time, and the kind of educational activity being related to a spatial conception of time. With a background in Van's retelling of the notion of time it is possible to derive two forms of education, which, for the sake of order, may be called formal education and non-formal education. The assignment for a moral education is therefore not a lesson in keeping awake, which is often the case for Van.
