ABSTRACT
The goal of education is to acquire, as effectively as possible and in the shortest possible time, the knowledge and skills needed to live in society. [Reaching this goal] is impossible if education is conceived as a continuation of society. This is why places of education must be cut off from places of society; the former must be clearly established outside the latter, and the educational experience must be developed separately from the social experience. We will proceed to teach after breaking down the overall experience, which is chaotic, into separate disciplines [each covering one type of experience]: experiences of a scientific type, experiences of a social type, etc. We will use this method because it appears to be that most effective for the acquisition of knowledge and skills. Moreover, education is not an activity carried out in places in which time is unlimited: it is carried out in places in which time is always limited to 3 or 6 years. The fundamental concept is that education is not life in society itself, but a life in preparation for social
life. Thus, what we request – what we demand – with regard to the fragmented knowledge and skills acquired over the course of a school education is not [knowledge and skills] extracted from life as a whole, but rather the fundamental knowledge and skills which, once acquired, will later enable one to pursue one’s path in life and act on one’s own.
