ABSTRACT
In 1973 Towards a Youth Policy, two things were argued: firstly that the concept of youth affairs needed to be established, and secondly that the consequent co-ordinating structures needed to be set in place. Post-reformation youth education will become real education. It will value discovery, analysis, choice, engagement, and above all it will be enjoyable. Once the nexus between education and work is broken, education ceases to be a sub-set of work, needing to adopt all the worst features which 'work' suggests. It can regain the pure joy of renaissance exploration. The context of the post-reformation youth education will be most unlike school in its generally accepted sense. Post-reformation youth education can only arise from much wider debates about youth in society and about that society itself and its directions. Education itself has a responsibility to be pro-active in such debates, and escape its role of whipping-boy and servant.
