ABSTRACT

Universality is spoken of as a virtue, and the quest for it is usually talked of as, well, universally positive. That may be true now as never before. The fulfi llment of the social, economic, and political promises of a shrunken, “globalized” world requires the major effort toward an agreed program of intellectual development applying across nations, cultures, and classes-a purpose embodied in the ideal of “universal basic and secondary education.” Economic vitality, political equity, and social progress are all understood as fl owing from, indeed depending on, the worldwide growth of literacy, cooperative skills, critical thinking, and moral reasoning that the UBASE project aims to foster.