ABSTRACT
The focus of this chapter lays less on reconstruction of the prehistory of the idea of progress and perfectibility which, according to relevant research, goes back to Jean Bodin, Francis Bacon, Galileo Galilei, and Rene Descartes and rather on the historical development once the idea was more or less broadly accepted by the European intelligentsia. In this chapter focuses on one of the most fundamental changes in the system of reasoning in Western culture that made possible the establishment of a modern educational culture with its different institutions after 1800, including education research. The educational sciences developed exactly along these lines; they were initially closely connected to the education of teachers as major actors of the educationalized nation. They were meant to implement the realization of the 'right' child as a future citizen and to execute the 'abjection' of the unsuitable child that was legitimized by the modern sciences relevant for education.
