ABSTRACT
This condition of permanent revolution seems to offer few vantage points from which to gain an overall impression of the directions of educational development, though that depends partly on the degree of an observer’s immersion in the daily minutiae of what is ever more
often and tellingly described as the educational process. It also depends on the particular dimension of education one identifies as the most sensitive index of its relationship to the wider society. And this, of course, is fundamental because it raises questions about the very point of universal education, itself an idea of comparatively recent origin. A brief review of some recent historical developments will help to provide the beginning of an answer to this question. It will highlight the persistent character of some of the social problems which contrasting education policies have been designed to solve. Above all, it helps to bring into sharper focus some of the ancient fault lines in educational thinking about human potentials and their implications for relationships between citizen and state.
