ABSTRACT
This chapter identifies and elaborates on a fundamental threat to K–12 education, namely, external dominant social factors that perceive it as an instrument and use it as such. This threat is not new to the educational project; attempts to subordinate education to others' will are old as education itself. However, it seems that in our time, the instrumental approach to education has become so prevalent in such a way that what education is has become seriously distorted. The chapter shows the prevalence and the grip of the instrumental approach beyond the factors that are usually perceived as using education for their own interests. It also shows how broad and deep the instrumental approach is to K–12 education and that it is articulated not just in the economic and the party-political domains but also in other areas that might seem innocent in this regard such as academia and the military.
