ABSTRACT
Now education (as again indicated previously), whatever else it may entail, and whatever other ideals it may espouse, is essentially concerned with the transmission of knowledge. Its central concern is that the pupil, upon leaving, will know certain things that he did not know on arrival and that, in the interim, he did not pick up elsewhere. It would be a bad mistake, however, to view this knowledge only in terms of curriculum content, for as we shall see education transmits other knowledge as well; but it would seem fair to claim that education aims to overcome ignorance and to teach people about the world. It would also appear that education embraces the principle that it is better to have knowledge than to be ignorant, that it is better to be Socrates dissatisfied than a pig satisfied. There are a great deal more claims that education, especially education that claims to be liberal, would make with regard to knowledge, and to the benefits that particular knowledge bestows on the individual, but I shall not list these here for two reasons. First, they are already well enough known, and if not they can be found in any curriculum 'Preamble' or ministerial report. Second, I believe that they, like the ones I have listed, are pieces of rhetoric which blatantly distort the state of affairs. This shall become apparent when the real functions of education are displayed in this chapter.
