ABSTRACT
The extreme pessimist might gloomily argue that the education system is totally determined by the character of society. The 'History of Education' course has frequently resembled the baseball batter, desperately racing against time around a diamond whose bases are set at 1836, 1870, 1902 and 1944. Society is worldwide now, and the question of social provision facing it is akin to the classic survival drama beloved of film-makers and variously located in lifeboat, desert or beleaguered fort. Civilisation, then, as understood here, describes a condition of life in which, on balance, man produces rather than gathers food, has begun manufacturing and using a variety of tools, is more rather than less settled into organised political community, is reproducing himself with more or less greater competence, has some form of written recording, has developed some type of supernatural commitment and has created a reasonably sophisticated culture.
