ABSTRACT
The philosophical relevance of Bildung in contemporary education has been challenged by a new emphasis on competencies and skills associated with the rise of global psychometric testing. Bildung as the overall goal of knowledge, schooling, and education is strengthened by the inclusion of a broader base of knowledge, offering even better tools for coping with an uncertain world. A new term borrowed from large scale assessments, competence, has appeared in discussions about Bildung. Bildung enabled a way of thinking about education outside of a narrow and restrictive context. It also fulfills a policy concern within the academic discipline of education. Bildung provides clear normative guidelines in education, particularly attractive in Spain given its history with fascism. It thus combined knowledge and life, represented the classic link and enabled a starting point for an autonomous life leading to individual fulfillment, unfettered by constraints of the mere outer life.
