ABSTRACT
Oakeshott linked the origins of the project to abolish 'School' with the growth of the modern European state. The two kinds of provision were directed at different sections of society, although the 'grammar schools' in England, which were a key element of 'School', catered for far more than just narrow economic and social elite. The alternative provision also acquired some potentially more educational elements, such as religious instruction and national history, though without radically changing its utilitarian focus. 'School' depended on the acceptance that there was heritage to be transmitted from one generation to another and that the teacher was the custodian of this heritage. For Oakeshott school was a source of 'wonder'. It could also be 'painful'. It was not something he normally associated with 'fun'. The problem about advertising 'fun' as one of the main features of school and seeing it as core value is that it can send the wrong messages to both pupils and teachers.
