ABSTRACT
Both the research on which this book is based and the writing of the book emanate from a personal philosophy of education that I shall attempt in this chapter to make more explicit. I believe that the task of helping children and young people to become fully mature, collaborative, creative and fulfilled members of the human race is one of the most fundamental and crucial roles of the adult. Education is non-reducible to subject teaching or skills training. It is concerned with the whole, developing person. If education is a core activity of human societies, then those institutions that play a formal role in educating the young on society’s behalf must be given the most favourable conditions judged necessary to do the job effectively.
