ABSTRACT
It is possible to identify two distinct and contrasting approaches to education. The first approach is 'idealist'. The idealist educationalist may think that his purpose is to equip children with essential skills such as reading, spelling and arithmetic and to ensure that children are acquainted with necessary information. The second approach is 'progressive'. Progressives' stress that teaching must be child-centred rather than subject-centred. The progressives' idea on teaching method can be related back to Pestalozzi, Dewey and Rousseau, with the curriculum based on the needs and interests of children. It is necessary to examine the sort of social situation that is conducive to competing interpretations of education, and the kind of factors that are likely to give advantages to certain interpretations rather than others. Finally, the connection between a particular view of education and the desirable relationship between education and society are examined.
