ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the nature of the British economy, and traces out the important links between it and the educational system. Schools inculcate ideals that can help or hinder the economy, but the curriculum best-suited to the rapidly changing needs of a modern economy seems to be that preferred by most teachers on strictly educational grounds, namely a broad general education ensuring both literacy and numeracy pursued to as late an age as possible. The economic function of the educational system is not restricted, however, to teaching skills and to matters of the curriculum, though these are perhaps easiest to understand and, providing the means of communication between education and the economy are good, problems in this field should be easily solved. Of far more importance are the attitudes of commitment to the labour force of a capitalist economy which family and school often transmit unconsciously and to which much attention will be given when we analyse the interpersonal level.
