ABSTRACT
I have tried to show that a proper inference to be drawn from the work of Gramsci is that
it is unrealistic to look to schools for a radical, counter-hegemonic education: the burden
of such an enterprise lies squarely in institutions for adult education, especially in those
political associations dedicated to social change and in economic associations where
workers are involved in productive relationships which have their own educational
imperatives. This conclusion is in sympathy with Marx’s assumption that ‘truths’ which
are partisan, dependent upon ‘party prejudices’, should not be taught in schools: it should
be left to adults to form their own opinions on these matters ‘about which instruction
should be given in the lecture hall, not in the schools’ (Shore, 1947, pp.84-5, quoting
statement to the General Council of the International, 1869). Lenin reached a similar
conclusion about the undesirability of using the schools for political indoctrination.
Speculating on his reasons for drawing this conclusion, Lilge suggests that he believed
