DOCUMENT RESUME

ED 118 876 CE 006 422

AUTHOR Lengrand, Paul

TITLE An Introduction to Lifelong Education.
INSTITUTION United Nations Educational, Scientific, and. Cultural
Organization, Paris (France).
PUB DATE 75
NOTE 157p.
AVAILABLE FROM UNESCO Press, 7 Place de Fontenoy, 75700 Paris
($13.00)

EDRS PRICE MF-$0.83 MC $8.69 Plus Postage

DESCRIPTORS. *Continuous Learning; *Educational Change;
*Educational Development; Educational History;
Educational Objectives; *Educational Planning;
Educational Problems; *Educational Strategies

ABSTRACT.
The concept oflifelOng education as becomea key.
issue in educational planning. The author, a theorist and
practitioner in adult education and a member of [Link]:
Secretariat since 1948, [Link] lifelong [Link] be
-[Link] highlights some of the problems it involves. The book is
in two [Link] the first, the author tries to show theaogical an
organic development of lifelong education in its various stages and
identifies a'number of challenges which require an intellectual,
physical, and emotional readiness. The study continues with a. number
of analyseS of the significance, dimensions, and objectives peculiar
to lifelong education, and .closes proposed' elements of a
strategy for educational action. It stresses the necessity of linking
together, in [Link] and achievement, the objective and
processes of education_as applied to children,adolescents, and
adults.,(Author/EA)

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DO
An Introduction to
Lifelong Education

PAUL LENGRAND

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CROOM HELM LONDON

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EDUCATION
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2
First published 1975 by
Croom Helm Ltd
2-19 St. John's Road, London SW11

and

The Unesco Press

7 Place de Fontenoy, 75700 Paris

Unesco 1975

ISBN 92-3-101263-0 (The Unesco Press)

ISBN 0-85664-2714 (Croom Helm Ltd)

New enlarged edition, material

originally published under the same
title OUnesco 1970

Set by Red Lion Setters, London

Printed in the United Kingdom
by Biddies of Guildford
CONTENTS

Preface

Foreword 2

In search of lifelong education 5

Part I. An attempt at a comprehensive discussion

Challenges that face modem man 25

The forces at work 38

The significance of lifelong education 50

Contents, dimensions and objectives 59

Suggestions for a strategy of lifelong education 72

A collective enterprise 85

Conclusions 91

Part II. Demonstrations and Illustrations,)

Aims linked with lifelong education 95

Content and methods 109

A special case: formal education 124

School and lifelong education with a view to

business management 133

Stones and men 146

Conversation with the author 150

PREFACE

The purpose of this study is to throw light on the varying significance

of the concept of lifelong education, to show what forces militate in
its favour, to explore its dimensions and to define its impact and
consequences for the educational effort taken as a whole.
The study fitted naturally into the context of International
4ducation Year since lifelong education was selected by the General
Conference of Unesco at its fifteenth session as one of twelve major
themes for thought and action proposed to Member States in
connexion with the international year.
The author of the study, Paul Lengrand, is a theorist and practitioner
in adult education and has contributed, both as a member of the Unesco
Secretariat since 194g Ind through personal research, to the formulation
of the thesis of lifelong education. He has also been active in making
them known.
The views expressed in the following pages are the author's own and
do not necessarily reflect those of Unesco.
FOREWORD

lifelong education is a subject which is exercising many minds,

sustaining much conversation and debate, and earning a high priority
in statesmen's speeches. What are its fields of application and its
significance? Can it be used effectively as a tool for analysis and as
a guide to action? These are some of the questions to which the
following pages seek to find partial answers. This study is called an
`introduction' deliberately, for in the present level of achievement
and thinking none may claim to do more than to introduce a concept
and to offer avenues for thought.
The book is in two parts. In the first, the author tries to show the
logical and organic development of lifelong education in its various
stages. He begins by identifying a number of challenges for which it
is important that men of our times should be intellectually, physically
and emotionally equipped if they do not want to find themselves on
the losing side. But it has never been sufficient to identify a problem,
however important, in order to solve it. There must also be a clear
consciousness of its nature; there must be men who reject, contest,
aspire and take decisions in other words, there must be forces. This
paper describei some of the forces at work: their impact is the
dynamic which alone can bring about change.
The study continues with a number of analyses of the significance,
dimensions and objectives peculiar to lifelong education, and closes
with proposed eleMents of a strategy for educational action. It lays
stress on the necessity to link together, in both thought and achievement,
objectives and processes of ethic tion as applied to children,
athe

adolescents and adults.

The purpose of the second part is to demonstrate a number of
propositions and to illustrate certain aspects of the previous section
which call for further explanation.

6
 This study, which was issued as a feature of International Education
Year, is intended not only for education specialists but for the general
public at large, for whom the future of education has become an ever-
present concern.
IN SEARCH OF LIFELONG EDUCATION

What did we expect of life when we were twenty? We wanted, first of

all, a life in the full sense, one which not only brought us the satisfactions
of living but also offered the opportunity to advance as far as possible
along the path of knowledge, feeling, art and poetry. We expected much
more than this, however. We wanted a chance to contribute to the
making of a better world, better for us, better' for others and for man-
kind as a whole how, indeed, could these aspirations be separated,
since it is neither desirable nor admissible, nor even realistic to create a
haven of peace and joy for oneself when the rest of the world is
dominated by fear and tyranny? The events whic:i followed were
unfortunately to prove us right.
These were the 'thirties and civilisation was already at crisis point,
showing incidentally that the crisis we hear so much about today is not
new.
We were in an extraordinary dilemma. On t' one hand, we were
unable to identify with a society whose raisons cretre and values we
could not accept; on the other hand, an even worse alternative, the
triumph of racialism and other of irrationality, and a return to
barbarism had somehow to be avoided. For this reason, we could not
stand aloof from the great battles which were looming ahead.
Our recipe for improving the structures and conditions of individual
and social life was determinedly (and for many people exclusively)
political. We thought of situations and problems in terms of power and
more specifically in terms of the assumption of power. Since the
obstacles lay in the structures and institutions of an outdated society
where disorder and privilege were rife, the only solution we could see
was to change society.
At that age, oie imagines that everything will come right if only
one can change the system and the institutions and alter the nature of
government: the villains will be chased out and the incompetent swept
5
aside; good and honest people will come into their own, put an end to
corruption and govern the res pubiica conscientiously and with
dedication. Justice will reign between individuals and between groupi
by virtue of new laws and new social relationships.
Experienee and reflection Upon that period were soon:to lead us
into new paths of thought and action. None of us, indeed, doubted or
could ever have doubted the important and fundamental role of
political action. It provided the power and the means to overcome the
forces of resistance, and when we 160k-back at the most significantInd
valuable advances made by modern civilisation, we are forced to admit
that they result, not from wisdom and reason, but from the interplay
of political interests and ambitions, demands and rebellions.
A certain number of us were rapidly induced to change course,
however. While they still recognized the crucial importance of the
forces at work in political attitudes and operations, they were obliged
to take other factors into account in their perspective on the building
of a oetter world. That perspective was now one of education, and
more especially adult education.
We can probably all sympathise with such a change of outlook.
Political action requires simplifications. It avoids the finer shades and
does not go in for subtleties. There are the objectives to be reached
and according to what those objectives are, so people take sides, are
friends or enemies, virtuous or villainous. Such a state of affairs is
perhaps necessary and in any case inevitable. There are many people,
perhaps the majority of mankind, who find this compartmentalisation
quite reassuring, but this was not the case with us. We 'could not help
being aware of the complexity of human nature, the many
contradictions, the mixture of reason and unreason, generosity and
selfishness which goes into the make-up of every individual, whichever
side he is on. The imperatives of the struggle might force us to take no
notice of our true feelings for a but they reappear with all their
original force as soon as the opportunity arises.
It was perhaps because we had this kind of temperament, responsive
both to the differences and to the universality of the human conditiOn,
that we gradually came to set ourselves objectives other than the
objectives of the political struggle. Let us call it concern for the long
6

J.
 term. However short a man's life may be, it is composed of numerous
episodes and passes through many stages. It covers a certain length of
time. We did not believe the ambition of a lifetime could be reduced
to the attainment of a particular objective, however noble and vast it
might_be.
A final-word about people's different temperaments, conceptions
and outlooks. Some people concentrate their attention on the
collective aspects of the human phenomenon. Theii interest is
"-monopolised by the masses, by the forces at work, by structures and
institutions, and it is these that they consider important. The individual,
their view, tends to be absorbed into these vast patterns and
constructs. Other people, on the contrary, are conscious primarily of
human experience in its individual form. What interests them above
all else is the single, unique, irreplaceable life-story of an individual, the
awakening of a Corisciousness,the whole set of ways of thinking,
feeling, and establishing relationships with himself and with the world
which are peculiar to the individual, his own particular way of tackling
and solving the problems he encounters both outside and within
himself Which,is, and always will be, different from other people's
ways.
In the final analysis, there is a natural division of functions between
the approach which could be called sociological and the approach
which, for want of a better term. might be called psychological or
philosophical. It is obvious that neither of these approaches is inferior
to the other and that each makes its own vital contribution to our
knowledge of man. It is nonetheless true that the second approach is
in a very special sense the approach of the educator, if one accepts
that the aim of education is to form the kind, the body and the
character. After all, where else do mind, body and character belong
but within the restricted and yet limitless space of a particular
individual in the context of his own being and becoming?
These considerations concerning different conceptions and interests
would not in themselves have sufficed to set our -feet firmly in the
path of edubational action if they had not coincided with the
conclusions to which we were driven by the events of the times in
which we were living. There have been quiet 'and peaceful periods in

10
man's history, at least if we take the history of only certain particular
parts of the world. For us of the western world, ho'wever, such has
not been our lot
The ten years between 1935 and 1945 will probably be counted as
among the most eventful and significant in history. For that brief
space of time, everything was at stake, the fate of individuals and the
collective fate of nations and peoples alike. Even good and evil. as
rarely happens in history' appeared clearly identified, sharply defined
and separated. heone hand-the negation of two thousand years of
efforts to bring mankind out of slavery and idolatry, on the other an
alliance of men of all sorts and conditions, resolved to oppose the
triumph of the Beast, the satanic alliance between folly, contempt for
man and lust for po,r. SOfice it here to say that the combination of
struggles and sacrificei-,-biganisational might and technological.
innovation, and the fortunes of war tipped the balance at the end of
these ten years in favour of what one must call Good when one thinks
of what the fate and future of the world would have been had the
other side wckn. In the first flush of victory and, in our case, of
liberation, it seemed to many of our companions that the time had
come to exploit to the, full a situation which looked favourable for
them to assume power, and that the major objective, which was to
transform the institutions and structures, should sake precedence over
any other:The means by which control was to be seized were to
depend on the kind of resistance encountered. Violence and
dictatorship were naturally not ruled out, even if they were not
systematically sought.
Why were we unable at the time to adopt this viewpoint? Today the
reasons seem to us fairly clear and strong, &it at the time things did
not seem so clear. Rather we followed our instincts and we argued
more from what we could not do than from what we could (among
other things, we could not bring ourselves to share certain enthusiasms,
certain transports of delight).
It did not appear obvious to us that the time was ripe for that
radical change of regime, however desirable it might have seemed.
Jn fact, despite a number of not inconsiderable reforms and
achievements and in spite of a steady increase of the national income
8

11
which has benefited many sections of society, to powers of decision
are vested in an increasingly small number of persons who are less and
less subject to any checks, whether it be in finance, industry or
politics. Far from having advanced along the road of freedom and
responsibility, our right to be consulted on everything which
nstitutes the essence of public life seems more circumscribed.
We had no idea at that time of the course which oursociety was to
take between then and now. Others better equipped to read the future
than ourselves were perhaps able to foresee the withering away of
democratic institutions, morals and conceptions. Our 'wisdom' at the
tithe was limited to thinking that the revolution was not going to take
place straight away not one of those cases where one can derive
much satisfaction from having been right.
from there,however, we arrived at certain conclusions and choices
which were different from those of the trade unions or political
organisations, which thought that the workers and their allies had to
be kept in a state of constant readiness for decisive battles and in a
militant, almost military` frame of mind.
As is-well known, the military, spirit, whatever its origins, has a
predominant tendency towards simplification. It cannot abide
disCussion or subjective interpreiation. It minifestiltself on the
intellectual level by orders and instructions. No latitude or flexibility is
allowed except in the restricted field of tactics and manoeuvre. It is
an affirmation of the spirit of dogmatisin, with all the short-term
advantages that it implies and all the long-term havoc it wreaks.
Militants can expect of4heir leaders devotion and readiness to take ,
decisions, but can scarcely hope for accurate infoimation from them
as to situations and motives.
For the personal reasons explained above, we found it difficult to
enlist under these colours; but, above all, we did not believe that this
was the path by which that better life upon which our expectations
and hopes were centred could be reached.
We attributed only a strictly qualified value to the merits of the
military spirit even if we could appjeciate why it was necessary for the
time being. When, however, the eitary spirit persists after the
circumstances which called it forth have ceased to obtain, it then loses

12
 all justification and becomes a postiviely advede factor. It seemed to
us that the leaded of the w,orting class movement, while acting in all
good'faith and for reasons which were often noble, had not attempted
to develop among the workers that free spirit of enquiry, that
questioning, original outlook which is the hallmark both of the
scientific attitude towards reality and action and of an adult conception
of thought and existence. Inspired as they were by a mystical view of
action, their aim was regimentation of the masses, for which
indoctrination is a natural prerequisite.
This being so, what was left for us to do in' our special position as
intellectuals from, to some extent, bourgeois backgrounds? We had, as
they say, thrown in our, lot with the people but we did not share, for
,better for worse, the condition of the working class, and although we
had enjoyed initial educational advantages, we were often lacking in-
human experience. The choice was not an easy one. We could always
have kept quiet and toed the line, joining and swelling the ranks of
those who, by their daily activity, though beset by the greatest
difficullies, defend the workers' interests inch by inch.
Such is the call of service. It has its own grandeur and its own
justification, even if it has to be paid for dearly by sacrifices which
involve more than just time and energy and even if it means losing a
part of one's soul. Although it is certainly understandable why some
. have chosen this path, it is not ?urprising that there aresome, too,
who have had a rude awakenirt.
We did not have the courage to make this kind Of sacrifice, nor did
we think that this was the way to make the best use of our particular
kind of ability and experience. We were educators by. profession; this
meant that twenty years of study, practice,,meetings and contacts,
reading and research had given us a certain ability in instructing,
communicating ideas and acquiring languages of communication. Both
by inclinatiOn and vocation, we had established and developed a,
consta,itly renewed dialogue and exchange with very varied mllieux,
and The war had given us, as it did so many intellectuals
.
of our
generation, the opportunity to live and work with people from social
and working backgrounth very differentfrom our own. With this
preParition, we felt technically and morally ready to make our
e 10

3
contribution to a kind. of education in which this experience of
exchange and communication among adults could be continued and
deepened. When one has experienced and practised this kind of work,
one acquires a taste for it which lasts the rest of one's life. But we had
also begun to feel that the work of education among children and
adolescents, however important and necessary, was only a kind of
preparation and only an imperfect prefiguration of the real process of
education, which only assumes its [Link] and scope when it takes
place among equals, i.e. among people who have reached adulthood.
We felt that the overall future of education was bound up with the
establishment and functioning of this new order in'training and .
education.
Circumstances favoured a venture of this kind: by a combination of
the necessities and hazards of the struggle against the occupying
forces, a particularly large group of young men found themselves all
together in the south-eastern town where I was working at the time.
They shared my outlook in varying degrees. Their origins and their
educational, social and cultural backgrounds were diverse. There were
fervent catholics and no less fervent communists, engineers, technicians,
a few philosophers and a few literary people. Very few had already
held a job and, apart from their particular experience of command and
organisation, most of them were 'absolute beginners'.
All in all, they were a mixture of exceptional maturity and great
naivety. It was, in fact, a time for discovering the world and oneself,
a time of +: firth and rebirth which gave spirit, wings and imagination
even to the least likely candidates for such an adventure and those
most inclined by temperament to settle down comfortably within the
system.
I believe that the vocation which most of them felt deep down was
not really for education, but,rather for technical matters and politics,
as subsequent events proved. My purpose here, however, is not to write
ahistory for which this is not theplace. Suffice it to say that above
and beyond their differences of background, job, interests, and
philosophical and political creed, what united these young men was
the fact that :hey had come into contact with education.
Most of them had taken part in the Resistance. They -had acquired
11

14
there that Resistance. spirit which left its indelible mark on all whom
it touched. The word Resistance of course covers a variety of factors,
feelings and interests which were sometimes in conflict. Those who had
experienced it in all its fullness, however, had found in it two basic
aspirations: towards innovation and towards human brotherhood. The
taste for innovation was aroused by the impression that the world we
had known was crumbling and that the traditional edifice of
institutions, structures, beliefs, myths and relationships no longer had
any sure foundation, not even in the minds and consciences of those
who set themselves up as its guardians and defenders. It was perhaps an
illusion but more a semiillusion: although t. ;s true that no new world
had arisen to take its place, the old world has continued to deteriorate
and to lose credibility. We have abundant evidence of this every day;
particularly spectacular explosions occur from time to time, erupting
through the cracks in the system and showing that a new spirit is
everywhere preparing to emerge.
There was something which was not a semiillusion, however, and
this, in the words of one of them, was 'the meeting of men'. It is a
long story fraught with significance and rich in episodes. To put it
briefly, these young men on the threshold of their adult life had lived
together for months on end. They had experienced spells of intense
action in combat but also long weeks of inactivity and waiting. What
happened then is what often happens in a situation of this kind.
Individuals lifted out of the rut discover powers and abilities in
themselves which routine or constraints had stifled and whose
expression had been inhibited or repressed. New qualities then emerge
in people hitherto dulled by their lives, temperaments assert themselves
and vocations manifest themselves.
These three elements in combination men with many and varied
talents forming a team, an exhilarating historical setting, and a series
of specific requests from active political and social circles were to
make possible an experiment in adult education almost unparalleled in
France. I consider it one of my greatest good fortunes to have been
associated with it and to have had a variety of responsiblities and
functions. I was given the job of establishing and later running a
workers' education centre, with premises in the trade union hall. Our
12
task was to help to train union leaders and, in a more general way,
those destined to provide the leadership for the new structures of the
society. born of the Resistance. Our work thus had a very pronounced
functional slant. It was imposed on us by circumstances and it also
corresponded to a doctrine, a doctrine we had all to a greater or lesser
degree worked out for ourselves during those recent years when we had
had the time to think and, to a certain extent, to experiment. We had
taken a clOse look at what had been previously achieved in so-called
popular culture in France and were resolved to follow radically
flIfferent paths.
It seemed to us that the weakness and consequently the fragility of
most of the activities which had aroused the enthusiasm and energy of
previous generations was largely due to errors of theory. Our
predecessors had remained prisoners of a traditional conception of
culture and were consequently doomed to fail. They thought of culture
as a self-contained domain comprising the sum total of knowledge
accumulated over the centuries and the sum total-of experiences and
achievements in the various sectors of science, art and literature. As it
was a domain, one could enter it or remain outside. Once one entered,
one could occupy more or less of its territory depending on chance,
the type of education one had received, one's tastes and interests.
Some specialised in history, others in geography, others again in
mathematics, in literature, etc.
If one adopts this 'geographical' concept of culture, it is obvious
that there is great inequality of opportunity for leading a 'cultured'
life. There are the cultural rich and the cultural poor, the privileged
and the victims, the initiates and the uninitiated; there are those who
have had the benefit of a thorough school and university education and
who have learned the methods and languages of communications, and
those whose intellectual materials and tools are limited.
One can understand why under these circumstances, the educators
who *devoted themselves to the service of the people in successive
generations had one major objective: to reduce inequality and open
wide the doorsoand broaden the paths of access to culture. They thus
set themselves up as the distributors of an elaborate and, to a greater or
lesser extent;tOilifikd syVem of knowledge. It will not be difficult to
13

46
 guess the reasons for, and the basis of, our critical attitude. Whilst
acknowledging that their intentions were honourable and noble, we
could see a number of mistakes an'd fallacies in this kind of approach:
mistakes as to the nature of knowledge and culture and the fallacy of
presenting specific models of cultural experience dating from a
particular historical period as culture itself and in this particular case,
imposing patterns of life, perception and sensibility elaborated over
generations by the bourgeoisie on other sections of society. The latter
either could not recognise themselves in the interpretations given them
and thus remained on the sidelines or, if they happened to be allured
and tempted by certain aspects could pick up nothing more than the
crumbs from the great cultural feast. In a word, this attempt to intro-
duce workers to culture was flawed in its very conception and was
doomed to failure.
[Link] motivated by quite a different conception of culture and
'cultural life. We tried to cut out a priori references to a ready-made,
cut-and-dried culture and were convinced that the only service an
educator can do for anyone else, particularly an adult, is to give him
the tools and put him in situations where, on the basis of his own
station in society, his own daily experiences, struggles, successes and
setbacks he is able to build up his own system of knowledge, to think
things through on his own and, by degrees, to take possession of the
various elements of his personality, fill them out and give them form
and expression. In other words, the ability to communicate, to stand
up for oneself and to participate in the common struggles becomes,
according to this view, as important as the ability to learn, whether to
satisfy curiosity or to increase the effectiveness of one's work or trade
union or political activity. Thus we came to attribute to being, in all
its aspects and in all its many dimensions, the paramount importance
it deserves and to set the acquisition of culture in its rightful place,
which is the purely relative one of becoming meaningful only when
integrated into a living, fighting being and into a series of experiences
of life, each one individual and unique.
How far did we go in applying these principles? We did not, of
course, carry them to their conclusions. To establish a coherent system
of methods would have needed much greater knowledge and ability
14

(c)

''
than we possessed. Nevertheless, throughout our experiment at the
centre, we attempted to be as 'functional' as possible. Rich in our
team's many talents and abilities, we carried out a study on the current
and specific needs of the workers we were dealing with. They, of course,
participated in this identification process. It was natural that they
wanted to be taught about business management and labour law. We
added to this a history of the working class movement which, as we
know, is usually left out of school syllabuses. Where we perhaps
showed most originality and imagination, however, was in the field of
intellectual training. Thanks to team-work in which technicians,
engineers, ordinary workers, professional teachers and some philosophy
specialists took part, we elaborated a method to which we have the
programmatic name of `entraihement mental' mental training, whether
sport or vocational. For present purposes let us merely say that this
method tried to develop certain habits and reflexes of intellectual
activity, starting out from an analysis of the main mental operations
involved in the various phases of mental activity and deliberately
ignoring traditional divisions between the various subjects. Thus, to
take just one example, and without going into details about the various
parts of the training, the operation of classifying was thus illustrated
and taught with the help of elements borrowed from current speech as
much as from the organisation of work, or from the' classification of
the sciences. The essential thing was, and still is wherever this method
continues to be used, to demonstrate the place, role and importance of
the 'classification' operation in all walks of life, home and social life,
by which to carry it out. It was thus an original combination of living
logic and living rhetoric, closely bound and linked to the needs and
circumstances of action. Needless to say, since this method will develop
the individual's powers of judgement and reflection and since it is
based on a philosophy of self-sufficiency, it has enemies as well as
friends, particularly in political circles which, as they do not share
this liking for intellectual independence, have greater confidence in the
formal education and its traditions and methods for the training of
minds.
. Worker education proper was only part of our team's activity,
15
 however. A cultural centre was set up at the same time and this too,
using different Means and by other kinds of activity, tried to meet the
needs of a developing cultuie, integrating the various elements
contributing to modern society, beginning with the work Of men and
the various attainments of modern art. To establish a fruitful dialogue
between the various departments as well as betiveen teachers and
taught, an inter-departmental centre was'set up. An association was
formed to co-ordinate the different parts of this work, which adopted
the name-of Peuple et Culture. The association soon found that its
work met a national need and it was not long before the group
forsOok its provincial surroundings and, as they say, 'went up to Paris'.
It has now been carrying on its activity in Paris with varying degrees of
sucass for a quarter of a century, alongside other bodies concerned
with popular culture but maintaining its originality of approach to
problems-and its inventiveness in the fields of theory and methods.
Over the years we issued a number of publications which have lost
nothing of theirvigOur and'relevance, in particular the manifesto of
.Peuple et Cultige and a textbbok on mental training. The institutions
we established were short-lik!ed,,howeyer. They could not survive when
thli spirit of theResistanee ran out, [Link] political ultimatums
were delivered' and whervthe teihr' except for a hard core of militants
who haVe'settled in Paris and now work at national level, dispersed to
return td theiroilm inteieSis.
The bulk of ,what rhave accomplished in adult education since that
time, in almost /thirty years of practical experience and of thinking
back on and forward from that experience, I owe to that Peuple et
Culture experithent which provided'each of us with a fund of ideas and
lines of ap-Froach on which we are still largely drawing. I was personally
unable to adopt the political' courses Of action chosen by my colleagues
in the movement. I had to leave the team and subsequently began an
international career which was interrupted only briefly for national
activities. During that time, Peuple et Culture lived on and fought on.
One could talk-endlessly about the many and varied contributions made
by thislandful of men not only to popular culture but to the
development of the country's intellectuallife. It was within that
circle, for example, that the concepts of cultural policy and of the
16
 sociology of leisure, concepts so full of meaning and promise, came
to maturity. Peuple et culture has never ceased' to play a pioneering
role and to be in the forefront of the fight to create a culture for our
times.
All the same, we are forced to admit that we have not succeeded in
our undertaking and that our expectations have not been fulfilled.
What was our ambition after all? As we said at the beginning, it [Link]
help to make a better life, and for all the reasons we have set out, our
hope lay in education. We staked our faith on education, but what is
the position today in France and in most of the other countries which
we have been able to study or about which we have verifiable
information? We are, indeed, forced to admit that adult education still
exists only in a rudimentary state.
Even the most optimistic observers of the educational scene in our
countries have to admit that adult education cuts a poor figure both in
'Itself and in comparison with the other sectors of education. Although
all c dren go willy-nilly through the educational mill and the period
of scho 'rig is steadily getting longer, how many people, after their
school days, however long, are over, continue to study, to educate
themselves, to keep themselves regularly informed and to develop, by
means of continuous, organised efforts, the skills, gifts and talents with
which they set out? Although it is impossible to give even approximate
figures given the great variety of 'unofficial' forms of education that
have to be taken into account, one can say without fear of"Contradiction
that such people represent a marginal fringe group in the<conimunity.
Of course, there are important areas of national life where one may
note with satisfaction that piogress has been made. This is tine of
vocational training. The rapid progress-nf-technology and the resultant
phenomena of geographical and social mobility, and the threat of
unemployment have produced a situation which is favourable for
educational action. In this field, the demand for and supply of tiaining
continue to grow; furthermore, legislation, administrative measure
funds exist in this sector, thus making impossible to foresee,tliat
gap between needs and resources will he narrowed in the relatively
near future.
But what about the rest? What progress can we note in the training
17

tic
of the intellect an I of the sensibility, in aesthetic and above all in
political and socia; education? There are certain active nuclei whose
work merits the closest attention; but what about the masses who are,
in the final analysis, the ones who matter, the ones who make up a
community, a people, a nation or a civilisation? It would be better
not to dwell too long on the inertia and passivity one can see for fear
of appearing too pessimistic and too unfair towards the remarkable
things which are being accomplished in the various sectors. What is
certain is that the bodies which are in charge of, or have assumed the
responsibility for organising this aspect of the country's political and
cultural life functionshwishly on the fringe of society and represent
but a minor force in comparison to other structures of social life such
as political parties, churches, trade unions, universities, professional
associations and pressure groups.
What are the reasons for this weakness? How is it that adult
education, in spite of its importance for individuals and society, has
not managed to establish itself and take strong root in our countries?
This is the vitas question which those among us for whom ephemeral
successes and small achievements are not enough have been unable to
evade.
There is a great temptation to blame the apathy and sometimes even
hostility of the public authorities. Indeed, this factor cannot be
ignored, since all authorities are, by nature, distrustful of anything
which might lead to what they call an unco-operative attitude, in other
words a critical attitude and a lack of respect for the established order
of things. Obviously, this factor must be neither ignored nor minimised
but in an overall analysis of the problem if occupies a secondary place
and plays a secondary rale. To place responsibility for shortcomings on
people who, by nature and by virtue of their functions, have no
incentive or reason to change a situation which is, or so they think,
favourable to them, is pointless and leads nowhere. The analysis must
thus be taken further and we must look towards the 'interested parties'
in the legal sense, i.e. towards the adults themselves. Here we are
forced to a number of conclusions which lead on one from another.
The first is that there is one essential reason why adult education fails
to make its presence felt and why it lacks vigour it does not
18
correspond to a desire, ór in any case to a determination. Child
education has such an important place in national life everywhere in
the world because it is a response to a universal aspiration. Every adult,
whatever his degree of [Link] his level of awareness, knows
and understands the importance of training and education for his
children. The desire for more schools, more teachers and a wider access
to education finds expression in demands of a political nature. The,
authorities, for their part, have confidence in the school as a source
of wealth, as a factor for national stability and integration and as the
essential upholder of right behaviour and right thinking; since public
and private motivations thus coincide, school education is founded on
a rock and has anirrepressible vitality. If the indifference of the
authorities towards adult education is to be replaced by an active
interest and if it is to be given 'adequate structures and institutions and
sufficient human and financial resources, it must come to be demanded,
if not by the whole of society, at least by important and influential
sectors of it. There can be no vigorous and flourishing adult education
until it is underpinned and supported by a collective will.
But we must carry this train of though further. Why is it that
adults who, as individuals and members of different-social groups, are
in great need of knowledge, regular information, and training for their
faculties of comprehension, feeling and communication, only want
education for others, particularly for those in their charge, their
children? Why do they turn away from anything that resembles an
educative effort in their oivii direction? Why this coolness and
frequently even hostility towards any educational enterprise? How can
one avoid the obvious conclusion that, for the majority of them, their
experience of education has not been a happy one? ,

In fact,we who are involved in adult education are led by our

analyses and thoughts to conclude that the weakness of our enterprise
is not fortuit'Ous, nals it due to some ill-defined lethargy or inertia
to which humans fall prey when they reach adulthood; rather, it is the
result of a series of frustrations, traumatic experiences and missed
opportunites. It seems obvious that if an adult loses interest in his
education and, apart from exceptional cases, turns aside from both the
highways and by-ways of education, it is because at an impressionable
19
age, in childhood or adolescence, he did not find what he wanted and
expected in the type of education offered to him or imposed on him.
We had to accept the obvious fact that once the pressures and
obligatiqns exerted by the authorities and the family or by the need to
learn a trade were removed, only a small number of fanatics made any
sustained effort to study and learn. What other conclusion can be
drawn from all these observed facts if not that education as it now
functions is on the wrong track and causes a wastage of energy,
enthusiasm and resources almost without parallel in any other sector
of national life except, of course, military programmes and prestige
projects.
As adult educators, we could not but turn our eyes and our attention
attention to education as a whole. It was a logical development of what
we were doing; otherwise, we would have been condemning ourselves
to accept an absurdity, that is to say, to finding ourselves confronted
with adults who are traumatised, cut off from the normal sources of
their creativity and alienated from the natural state of the mind and the
heart which is to never stop questioning the world or seeking
self-perfection. For some years, therefore, while still carrying on our
specific work for adults, we have been more and more urgently drawn
to consider the whole of education and the succession and interrelation
of its various stages. When we speak of lifelong education, it is the
unity and totality of the educational process which we have constantly
in mind.
It will be seen that we by no means identify lifelong education with
adult education as, to our regret, is so often done. Why, after all, invent
a new name for something already well designated and identified by
the term in use? Why add yet another term, albeit with different shades
of meaning, to the already lengthy list of expressions such as popular
education or culture, mass education, community development, basic
education, etc. There is enough confusion already. What we mean'by
lifelong education is a series of very specific ideas, experiments and
achievements, in other words,education in the full sense of e word,
including all its aspects and dimensions, its uninterrupted d velopment
from the first moments of life to the very last and e cl , organic
interrelationship between the various points and succ ive phases in
20

?.
.1
u
(JO
its development.
This .n no way means that adult education is losing ground and
becoming less important; on the contrary, it thus acquires a
heightened significance and prominence. Firstly, the more adults there
are requiring education, the more naturally will they feel the need to
form associations and to receive help and guidance from institutions
and people specialising in this kind of activity. But this is not all: the
success of every project carried out under the banner and following the
path of lifelong education quite clearly depends on the existence of a
vast network of educational and cultUral facilities for adults. No
reform of education at any given level A is in fact possible nor can it
be envisaged unless education continues at level B, and so on. If
individuals are left to their own devices once they leave school or
university and do not find in their immediate environment the tools
and structures for a living education adapted to life in its continual
evolution, it is clear that there can be no escape from encyclopedism,
i.e. the unavoidable although anti-educational and irrational need to
stockpile knowledge and accumulate ready-made answers to questions
which have never seriously been asked. It will be seen that the concept
of lifelong education is circular: there can only be lifelong education
worthy of the name if people receive in childhood a fair and rational
education, based on life's needs and enlightened by, the findings and
data of sociology, psychology, and physical and mental hygiene., but
an education of this kind cannot be achieved unless adult education
itself is firmly established ir, peoples' minds and way of life and unless
it has a solid instil-eion:.,i basis.
Even now, however, the contribution, made by adult education to
education as a whole is a decisive and irreplaceable one. As we have
seen, it was in adult education, beginning with a series of analyses of
the nature, circumstances and progress of the work in hand and of the
obstacles encountered, that the theory and, to some extent, the
practice of lifelong education were worked out and are continuing to
be worked out..But adult education's programmes and activities have
also Made specific and direct contributions to the world of education.
The real educational innovations of our time have been introduced in
this field' It was here that group work replaced the exclusive use of
21
 formal lectures, lessons and exercises. Adult education, except where
it is only a substitute for and complement to school education, shuns
the idea of marks, positions, punishments and [Link] all that .

clutter from a bygone age which our schools still harbour. Education
shows through here in its true light as a process of exchange and
dialogue in which each participates and contributes according to whOt
he is and to his specific acquirements and talents, not according t6 set
patterns. There is no selection, which is a brutal and wasteful process,
nor are there any examinations and certificates which distort the
teaching process and impair the normal development of the personality
through fear of failure. In adult education, there is no hierarchy of
methods and it is no mere chance that the less orthodox methods of
- education, visual methods in particular, have long been accepted in
adult education institutions. In a word, adult education, at least
wherever it is given its head and does not have alien patterns imposed
on it for professional, political or partisan reasons, is education in
freedom, for freedom and by freedom.
The'question nevertheless remains, how can such necessary changes
be made? Where are the forces necessary to overcome obstacles and
inertia? Is it not an unbreakable vicious circle, since those responsible
for taking action on education are precisely the ones whose interest it
is to see that it does not change, those who maintain the traditional
patterns which have made them what they are and which bolster up
their position and their prestige? We thus comedown to the root of the
problem and it is essentially a political'one. Only an evolution in
political thinking and a new view of the relationshiop between the
authorities and the citizen, between the governing and the governed,
between the administrators and those administered, can make it
possible to set the objectives of a new kind of education and give the
strength needed to put creative innovation in the place of retrograde
tradition. This does not prevent us either from criticising or from
seeking particular solutions to particular-problems.-In the long-term, -
however, the only solution to the problem of a better life lies in a
society imbued through and through with the principle of lifelong
education and in an education closely bound up with the advances
and achievements of society.
22
PART I
AN AT IEMPT AT A COMPREHENSIVE DISCUSSION

2
CHALLENGES THAT FACE MODERN MAN

Existence has always meant for man; for all men, a succession of
challenges: advancing age, illness, the loss of a loved one; encounters,
and the encounter above all others of man with woman or woman
with man, the choide of a lifetime companion; wars and revolutions;
-which spare no generations in their-sequence; the birth of a child; the
mysteries of life andthe enigmas of the universe; the significance
of a life; the relation of a finite being to the infinite; anoccupation,
money to be found, taxes to be paid; competiton; religious and
political cornm;TmeSts; slavery at_ id f_ises,o1 m,poiltical, social and
economic; dre ;ms rye
Challenges are S'til! with us and have lost nothing of their force,
directness or insisten ;e, although in each particular life or given
community they arise in a different combination and obey a
different order of priorities. But since the beginning`of this
century these fundamental factors of the condition of man have
been supplemented, with increasing sharpness, by a series of new
challenges which to a large extent modify the terms of individual
or community fate, render the actions of men more complex and
involved, and jeopardise the traditional patterns of explanation of
the world and of action.
The most, important among those new factors most of them
taking the form of challenges = would undoubtedly appear today.
to be the following.i

Acceleration of change
it is not a novelty to say, nor a discovery to proclaim, that the world ,

is in a state of constant flux. In his own day the Greek poet-philosopher,

Heraclitus, exclaimed: Tanta rer (all things are flowing B. Russell).
25

27
 Indeed since all time the landscapes of life have altered and ideas,
,,,customs and concepts have changed, from one generation to another.
The disputation between ancients and moderns is surely one of the
contestants of history.
What is new, however, is the growing pace of change. Innovations
which formerly called for sustained effort by several generations are -
now accomplished by one only. From decade to decade man is faced
with a physical, intellectual and moral universe so vastly transformed
that yesterday's interpretations no longer meet the need.
Moreover minds are often behindhand in their race with evolving
structures.
The world no longer corresponds to the image that men had built
up for themselves since childhood. It becomes incomprehensible to
them, and before long hostile. To conceive the universe as it is and
as it is' becoming, both on the political and the physical plane, is a
constant imperative if equilibrium 'it to be maintained between the
realities of life and the perception of life which every individual
must gain. Failing to make this effort, men become strangers to the
setting in which they are forced to. live. They do not recognise the
features of their own existence and end up by no longer recognising
themselves. Never before has it been so essential to acquire the agility
and adaptability demanded in the interpretation of the shifting
elements of this world.
Whatever stress is laid on any one of the factors of our evolving
fate, these factors all have thii common feature, that they bring
education and educators face to face with questions and demands
of such scope and variety as to disrupt the traditional edifice of
didactic notions and methods. The techniques and structures built
up by successive generations to transmit knowledge and the
`know-how' suited to each society from the older to the young,
from father to son, have for the most part lost their efficacy; and this
to such an extent that the role itself and the traditional functions of
the educational process are now the subject of [Link]
and scrutiny, and that education is increasingly driven to seek new
paths.
26 /

28
Demographic expansion
[Link] of population is one of the major problems which most
countries now have to face. Among the first consequences is an obvious
one of a quantitative nature: the demand for education is continually
increasing, all the more in that the conscioussness of a universal right to
education, which is wholly justified, develops step by step with
increasing numbers. Meanwhile-the expectation of life is also extending
rapidly. In some countries men and women reach and exceed an average
age of 70 years, and even"Where expectancy is still much lower. it is fast
moving towards levels of 40, and soon SO, years of average life span
thanks to the achieVements of medicine.
Not only. the volume of education, but also its function and almost
its very nature, require change to meet the expansion of populations.
Whatever the speed and scale of achievement of traditional structures
r ;([Link], schools, universities and institutes can no longer meet the
In the developing countries it will take many generations before
the educational system can meet the needs of successive waves of
children and youths. The work Of education will have to be puisued
well beyond the school4eaving age to ensure the spread of knowledge
and the types of training that individuals and societies will increasingly
require. Such action 'can indeed only be envisaged through large-scale
recourse, beyond the traditional functions of education, to all the vast
modern media for spreading knowledge and providing training.
Moreover the preservation and utilisation of natural resources can
only be assured through heavy investments of knowledge and ability
aimed at all the inhabitants of our planet.
If we accept the piinciple that the expansion of our species should be
be made subject to rational criteria and to equilibrium between needs
and available resources, it word seem that only education is in a
position to apply effective and lasting solutions to a Problem which
affects the dignity of men and women as well as the terms of their survival.

Evolution of scientific knowledge and technology

Scientific progress and modifications in techniques are gradually
affecting the totality of mankind. Attention has frequently been drawn
27
to the high speed of change occurring in the technological field. An
international group of experts met at Unesco Headquarters in July
1965 to examuirproblems-concerned with the training of engineers.
The participants found that discoveries and processes which, only ten
or twenty years previously, were in the forefront of scientific progress,
had in many cases already become obsolete. The vacuum tube had
been succeeded by the transistor, which in its turn was being replaced
by micro-circuits.
Hence, concluded these experts, if the ohject is to train engineers
able to adjust themselves to the techniques of tomorrow, the main
effort should bear on teaching pupils to learn, since they will have to
learn throughout their lives. If this is true for engineers, it applies
equally in the case of doctors, economists and, more generally of
specialists in every discipline, whether cultural or scientific. Languages
are no longer taught today as they were twenty years ago, and the
processes of literary criticism have been completely revolutionised
through recourse to characterology, sociology, phenomenalism and
comparative literature in the study of writings; authors, schools and
trends.
A man who does not keep up to date is condemned to be overtaken,
and. let it not be thought that this rule applies only to scholars or the
higher technologists. In numberless sectors of industry or agriculture
the need for constant renewal of concepts and techniques dominates
at every level of production.
The threat of technological unemployment is in all countries a
continuing concern for considerable fractions of the active population;
it is also one of the main motivations of a whole sector of adult
education.

The political challenge

Political reality is without doubt the dominating factor in the lives of
increasingly large sections of the world's population.
Changes occurring in the world's social, economic and technological
structures are matched by no less frequent modifications in the political
structure of the polls. Except in a few privileged countries men reaching
28

30
 the age of fifty today have known two or three wars, several revolutions
and countless changes of regime. Of the 131 Member States of Unesco,
over one-third only attained independence during the last fifteen years.
It is hardly conceivable that the world as we know it should be destined
to permanent stabilisation in all its current forms. From one year to the
next, sometimes from one day to another, risen of out present
generations find themselves projected into anew kind of society
'involving different types of pdlitical, legal or social institutions, far-
,reaching changes in the structure of the socal classes, the emergence of
a new governing class and the [Link] new relationships between the
citizen and the public powers.
Without doubt the vital political choices are only indirectly matters
for education. The cleavage of society by the diive for progress and the
[Link] stability and the choice between justice and order is imposed
upon the individual by factors which lie far beyond his hopes, affinities,
likes and dislikes. The masters of the game are self-interest, passion,
ideology, revolt and submission. And yet although education does not
play a determining role in the march of events, it is called upon to
participate in the preparation, the putting to use and the consequences
of events in terms of the lives of groups and individuals.
One factor which emerges at the start is of a purely intellectual
order: minds are frequently behindhand in relation to the volution of
structures. But the matter does not stop there: changes on the political
stage involve at an increasingly rapid pace modifications,,sometimes
fundamental, in the role and functions which individuals are called upon
upon'to play in so far as they are not mere spectators, however
kinowledgeable and understanding.
Generally speaking the very content of the notion (and role) of a
citizen is continually reopened to question. The nature and shapes of
power, the number and hierarchy of freedoms, attitudes with respect to
administration and government, are none of them fixed once and for
all. It is unavoidable that concepts, attitudes, relations between
governors and governed, should be the object of constant scrutiny
leading to the taking of options and to positions which are not
necessarily similar to those to which citizens were driven fifty, twenty
or even ten years ago.
29

31
 Changes occurring in the foundations and structures of the po:::
have as their result that citizens are called and will increasingly be
called to new tasks and responsibilities which they can only undertake
with the desired competence if they have received suitable training.
Modem democracy in its political, social, economic and cultural
aspects can only rest on solid foundations if a country has at Its
disposal increasing numbers of responsible leaders at all levels, capable
of giving life and concrete subAance to the theoretical structures of
society. The trade-union secretary, co-operative manager, member of
parliament, or town councillor can on1:, -fulfil the tasks inherentin his
functions, with the required authority and abilities, if he is
continuously learning; for the administration and operation of the
complex structures of our societies leave less and less room for a
frivolous or light-hearted approach.
This is true in general, but even more marked and to the point
in the majority of countries belonging to the Third World, in which all
political problems arise simultaneously and with exceptional sharpness.
In many cases the issue is to build up the material, economic and
cultural structures that can buttress states of recent birth whose
foundations are necessally fragile. A civic sense must be nurtured,
often in the teeth of trao3tions which run counter to the concept of a
modern state. If institutions are not to remain hollow shells, these
countries must have at their disposal without undue delay leaders at
the higher and intermediate levels ,able to assure the functioning of
projects, administrations and services. That is the price of genuine and
effective independence.
Countries having recentlyxperienced arevolution not confined to
a mere replacement of ministerial ranks but affecting the country's
structures in their social and economic aspects encounter problems of
a similar character. It is not enough to promulgate a new constitution,
to install an administration of a new type: the main effort must be made
made at the level of minds, mores and relations.

Information
Individuals and societies must also face the consequences of the
30

32
formidable development of the mass media of communication. Through
the press, but especially through radio and television, one and all are",ii"
now associated with every important event in the world. Occurrences
such as war, revolution, a party congress, an economic crisis, the death
of an influential personage, etc., which quite recently onlycbecame
known across frontiers after delays of several weeks or months, are now
immediately perceived, indeed experienced, by viewers or listeners
throughout the greater part of the world.
This situation has profound repercussions. We are witnessing the
growth of a civilisation of a planetary character in which every man
is concerned with every other, linked with the other in solidarity,
whether he wishes it or not, except where obstacles of a political
nature are placed in the path of the spread of news.
The positive aspects of this interchange are' obvious. There is here a
decisive contribution to the development of a civilisation otkinship.
The brotherhood of men and the common character of ,[Link] partof'
the problems they face emerges steadily despite differences in situations
and variety of circumstances. It is as yet too soon to identify and
measure the countless implications of this phenomenon, but in the long
term, international understanding and collaboration can only benefit.
Nevertheless information can only play a constructive role if it is
accompanied by an intense and continuous process of training. The
understanding, interpretation, assimilation and use of the messaged and
,data received call on the part of each indiiidual [Link] an apprehension of
language visual as well as spoken" or written for practice in the
reading of signs, and above all for the develoPment of a critical sense
and of the ability to choose. Choice is denianded at every:stage, whether
whether in arriving at a judgement concerning the impdrtance and
degree of truth of credibility of incoming news or in giving information
its due place in relation to the other means by which the personality is
helped to grow and strengthen.

Leisure
Another factor which tends to play a determining influence on the :1

condition of a great many of the world's inhabitants is the increase in

.
31

33
leisure time, although this phenomenon is probably not as universal as
the factors previously listed. Leisure in its modern form, scope and
content is a product of industrial society. In traditional societies of
the rural type leisure and work or if one prefers, productive activities
and entertainment are in many cases closely. linked. Thus among the
Dogons, on the banks of the Niger, the peak periods of economic
activity, the fishing and harvesting seasons, coincide exactly with times
of feitivities and ceremonies. The productive effort and enjoyment are
inextricably mixed. Again, even in industrial societies, the distribution
of leisure time among the different sectors of the population is far from
even. Every'degree of variety is found in between the university
professor who enjoys six months' leave in the year and the worker on
the land, whose life is unbroken toil. Only recently have industrial
workers obtained, in many countries, the right to two, then three and
finally four-weeks' paid holiday. On the domestic plane, men and
women are far from enjoying equal hours of leisure, and it has even
been asserted that the leisure of some is in flat contradiction with the
pleasures of others.
However this may be, more and more humans are able to benefit
from a new dimension of time, and it is essential that they should
make appropriate use of that time, in their own interest as well as
in that of society considered as a whole.
We must, of course, insist strongly that builders of all types
(architects, townplanners, etc.) and those who utilise their services,
such as municipal and communal authorities, should engage in no
building scheme without having first taken account of the basic needs
of human beings both as individuals and as members of communities.
The, utmost efforts of educators and psychologists, however constructive
they may be, will be brought to naught if children, young people and
adults have no alternative, in satisfying their need for sociability, to the
street, the bar or the nearest cinema.
Yet the main responsibility rests with the educators. The most
lavish occasions and opportunities for acquiring culture may be
offered, but all this treasure will remain meaningless and without
effect if men do not hold the keys which give access to such wealth.
Towns, the countryside, human beings themselves are filled with
32

3,1
messages which, at any moment of a life, could make every man's
existence richer. But these messages must be deciphered, the languages
of painting, music, poetry, science and of communication with others
must be mastered.
This is the basic taskof the [Link] the matter of leisure,
namely, to help humans to become more fully themselves by supplying
them with the instruments of consciousness, thought and expression of
thought as well as of feeling. Those who, through ill luck, lack of will or
Weariness, do not cross the threshold of the cultural adventure will not
know how to make. use of the free time placed at their disposal. They
will become prey to boredom, and boredom is to the soul as perilous,
as fatal an evil as is a virus to the organism.

The crisis in patterns of life and relationships

Patterns of life themselves have been shaken. In earlier centuries men
found in their heritage from previous generations broadly acceptable
solutions to the main problems with which they were faced in their
own lives. Often they did not hesitate, s;s1 compulsive were these
models; they simply chose between a certain number, a limited number,
of types and formulas. Each age of man donned ready-designed clothes,
matching more or less exactly peculiarities of character, mentality and
sensibility but allowing each individual to be the person ha was
expected to be. Relations between one generation and andther,
between rich and poor, landowner and proletarian, master and servant,
man and woman and husband and wife were to a large extent codified.
Ceremonies, mores and customs were all-powerful, and although they
sometimes imposed burdensome or painful compulsions, by and large ,

they allowed most men to fill the place to which they had been
appointed.
. None of this exists any more today; none of the traditional types of
humans wrought over the centuries by a slow process of evolution now
meets our new individual and social situations.
Nowadays all is in question. It would seem as if humanity had cut
its moorings and launched out towards an immense adventure of which

33

35
neither the field of operation nor the objectives to be gained can be
perceived with precision. Traditional conjunctions, contexts, age itself
are no longer releiant. When does one become adult? When does one
cease to be a young woman? Half a century ago a woman of 30 to 40
years of age was on the threshold of old age. 'today she begins to assert
herself in her full maturity. We are all hard driven to identify ourselves
in terms of the images of personality conveyed in books and tales of
former times.
A father who seeks to model his conduct towardshis sons and
daughters on the pattern which governedrhis own upbringing is in
danger of erring gravely. He will not even be listened to. And how even
sharper is the difference between the image of woman one or two .

geneiations back and that which is emerging in the years we live in!
How can woman succeed in finding her true self in this new welter
of shapes made up of feminine sexuality, of the relationship of love,
of social and-professional personality, of novel assertions and self-
questioning? How even more difficult is it for woman to identify
herself with the image which the opposite sex, sometimes in good faith
and with goodwill, seeks to impose upon her? There is a whole range of
teachings on relationships, on emotions, descent, partnership,
fatherhood'and motherhood that must find its place in these new
con:exts.

The body
It would doubtless be giving proof of great naiveté to claim that man
has had to wait until present times to discover the body and its powers.
In the first place the body's presence is always felt and it is quick to
remind us of its existence if it has been neglected. In addition, entire
civilisations have given to everything that appertains to the phytical ins
the human being the importance that is due to it, and have learnt to
make use, in festivals and ceremonies, in dancing and m sexuality, of all
the resources that the body provides for man to express his desires, his
emotions, his relation to the universe and his need for aesthetic
expression.
In past times in the western world, major civilisations found
34
 themselves in natural harmony with this human diMension. But as the
centuries succeeded one another this harmony was broketi in many
, societies. A hiatus developed between what was called the body and
what was called the soul. Unity of being was destroyed and -those values
which related to the soul became magnified at the expense of others.
Human beings were soon confuted, crushed in a tight network of taboos
and prohibitions which gradually led to paralysis and to fearsome .
trauma. In many lands, especially in the West, human culture was for
centuries deprived of its normal relationship with biology, physical
expression and sexuality. In these circumstances it is not surprising that
the body finally rebelled.
Taking advantage of a lessening of the barriers erected by ideologies
and customs, and skilfully exploited by trades which find here a source
of rich profit, physical realities have burst upon our daily life. The
press, the hoardings, cinema and television screens, popular songs, are
henceforward devoted, day in, day out, to the visual and auditory
expression of physical existence, with a strong bias towards the
expression of femininity. Constant emphasis is given in all these
displays to everything relating to sexuality, which now tends to occupy
a disproportionate place in the mental and physical universe of our
contemporaries.
Whatever religious or philosophical positions we may hold, whatever
our preferences or distastes, there is here a fact which constitutes a
major challenge for the. modern individual, society and civilisation.
There has been nothing similar even in the quite recent past. What
should the reaction be to the intrusion of this blatant and pressing
reality in our world?
There is here both an opportunitk and a threat: an opportunity to
enrich being, to fill up the gaps caused by the disappearance of
traditionalelements of our culture. We may gain here a valuable means
to living experience, to expression and communication. But there is
also a grave threat to the balance of being to the extent that these
new forces are not brought underiliscipline and that the riches they
offer are not utilised. We have to deal with an ambiguous situation.
It is clear that education in all its forms has the primary
responsibility for lessening the harmful effects of this phenomenon and
for extracting from it everything that will help men to lead a more
35

3?
harmonious and full life in great accord with the truths of being..

The crisis in ideologies

A fundamental crisis is manifest not only in the sphere of morals and
relations between beings but also in the realm' of thought. Oui
predecessors, whatever the ideology they clung to, had)at their disposal
an ample and well-nourished stockpf ieplies to any [Link]
might ask themselves concerning the meaning of life, the principles of
conduct, defects and virtues, merits and demerits, sin and its
redemption, what should be done and not done, and necessary'
attachments and inevitable repulsions. Every society had its codes and
scales of value, stoutly rooted on earth and in heaven. Parties and
churches had little hesitation in issuing dogma,"regulations and
directives. He'who by chance or choice became aMarxist, a-Catholic or
a Moslem found himself snugly safe in thebosom of his option and in
the community of the faithful.
Today it is increasingly difficult and unconvincing to identify this
type of faith. Doubtless there are still convinced Marxists, unshakable
Christians, citizens wedded to their parties and convincedof the
excellence_ of their beliefs. But even where positions-are strongest,
doubt has crept in not necessarily destructive scepticism but
constructive doubt and variety of interpretation: Less and less is there
a single mode of belief. Certain historic congresses and councils,
disputes and debates, the evolution of ideai and lcnowledge, and in part
the erosion of doctrine's, have everywhere introduced a taste for
discussion. History as We live it brings us every day a fresh opinion or
a contradictory point of view.
This agitation does not spare even those circles in which by tradition
the Visage of serenity and-certainty was always apparent. How can the
average individual member of our societies remain unaffected by such a
transformation of the attitudes and bearing of his traditional mentors?
Every man is in fact faced with" the same choice: either to adopt an
attitude of resignation and surrender, watching the cauldron of
doctrines and beliefs without great concern over their contradictions
and changes of front; or on his own account to participate in research.
36

3
Cleaily, the second solution is alone compatible with a full and whole-
hearted acceptance of the condition of man.
Tor the right to be man is complemented by the duty to be men, -
and this means acceptance of responsibility: the obligation to be
oneself; to be responsible for one's thoughts, judgements and emotions;
to be responsible for what one accepts and what one refuses. How
could it be otherwise at a time-when there are a hundred ways of
belonging toa spiritual, religious or philosophical community? In one
sense, the modern individual is condemned to autonomy, obligated
to freedom: This is a deeply uncomfortable situation, but a stirring
one It can only be sustained by one who is willing to pay the price;
and the price is'education education which never ceases, which
mobilises every capacity and every resource of being, whether from the
intellect or from the heart and imagination.
To be, or rather to become, an adult in-our tines calls for the same
passion and continuity, the same pertinacity as would the moulding of
any work of creation, whether scientific or aesthetic. If one is to
succeed in this endeavour it icon thefoundation of the consciousness
of its imperative character. No one henceforth can be a philosopher, a
poet or a citizen by proxy.

37

3 9-
THE FORCES ATWORK

Obstacles and resistances

.
Education in general, and teaching in particular, have a Crystal-clear
traditional function. Is it not established that we are all, first and
foremost, heirs? To link thepresent with the past and succeeding
generations, one with another, to convey to the young what their. . .
ancestors havethought, felt and created, not only for themselves but
in a universal perspective; to maintain contact with the major creations
of mind and man in the fields of poetry, music, architecture, painting
or philosophy to ensure the continuity of the treasure of wisdom and
humanitl accumulated through the ages all this is essential, for we
know too well to what depths of poverty of being and of expression
are reduced those who have not received their share of this common
heritage.
Yet this same heritage will only have value, meaning and a true
impact if it is integrated with the experience of a developing person
engrossed in the labours, undertakings and struggles which modern .
man must' face in order to meet satisfactorily the totality of the
challenges he faces: To help man to invent, to Place him on the paths
of imagination, of risk and of every kind of researchto make him
accept the position that his beliefs, attitude and knowledge must .

constantly be placed in doubt these constitute the second function

of the educational process.
For these purposes education should be constantly renewed in terms
of its particular objectives, of its content and methods, in such a way
as to take due account of current transfomiations, of the new problems
which arise and of the life prospects which await those involved in the
different aspects of the educational quest.
Nevertheless it is clearly apparent that there are few human
endeavours in which greater obstacles to progresi are encountered than
in educatidn. Institutions noted for their stability, such as*churches and.
38

40
, armies, have been in full flux for decades: national defence is
nowadays seldom planned, on the parade grounkbut rather in the
scientific laboratory.
In Rome, at the same [Link] the assembled bishops of the
world were debating the forms of edclesiastical power with the Pope,
simple priests took their place in the. Protestant conclave and
demanded the right to participate in decision-making.
Up to recent days, however, nothing similar had been witnessed in
the realm of education, at least on those sectors concerned. with the
teaching of children and adolescents. It is true that teaching, as given
nowadays in most countries having a modem structure, has made some
advance since the days of the bitter surveys and sombre descriptions of
Charles Dickens or Jules Valles.
Children are no longer beaten, and there is greater skill in developing
their intelligence. They are no longeriequired to learn by heart the
names of the tributaries of Rhine or Thames.. Light has also been
thrown on curricula and methods. Yet the spirit and endzobjectives of
teaching haVe hardly altered at all except in a fe4; countries in which a
didactic revolution has resulted from political transformation. The
general state of mores ha's'inade progress, and the techniques of
teaching have benefited from several decisive victories of civilisation.
But the instruments available to society for the instruction and training
of its future citizens, the school and the university, still reveal,
generation after generation, the same characteristics: fractional links
with life, isolation from concrete realities, a lift between enjoyment
and education and an absence of all dialogue or participation.
The obstacles are easily identified. We have already mentioned the
burden of communication, which by its very weight acts as a brake. The
difficulties of the u_ertaking are themselves an obstacle: education is
concerned withbOnbliierable aspects of the life of individuals, groups
and peoples. Where education is concerned, everything comes inthplay:
philosophy, for we must define the objectives and values to be taken
into account; the relations between education and psychological data,
both individual and collective; relations with the structures and
functioning of societies; the cost of education and its yield; problems
of administration; and lastly, the fundamental options relating to
equality,'efficacy, justice and so forth.

41
 .,Given the complexity of the educ,ational endeavour, it is almost
impossible .to act in full assurance of success, all the more since the
results of any actionin progresi will often only become apparent in a
distant future. Even countries best equipped to know, and to lake
decisions based upon knowledge and experience, hesitate before
modifying a situation which, despite its defects and deficiencies, has
the merit of existing firmly and in apparent order. With even stronger
reason, countries less well equipped from the standpoint of scientific
data, studies and research, understandably shrink from launching into
adventures carrying such a heavy burden of risk. Caution prevails over
logic and reason.
Another Wake on innovation lies in a factor which nevertheless
assures the solidity of the school system, namely the principle of
compulsion. No one will dispute this principle; but it does act as an
element of immobility. Why change, why seek to. improve? Why
search for formulas which might better meet the needs and hopes of
developing human beings when each year the school receives its
automatic intake of users? The play of supply and demand, which
commands progress, is here absent-
Nor does the teaching profession, as now recruited and moulded,
show much eagerness for imagination and invention. Teachers are
never, at whatevef level of teaching, and by definition, in a position
to engage in dialogue. They do not have to justify themselves as
between equals; having undergone examinations they move from a
status of submission to one of full authority. From this standpoint
there is nothing, in the world as it is, to equal the concentration of
powers vested in the person of a teacher. He is the instructor, the
moulder; and holds the privilege of age: and knowledge. He is right by
definition; he is judge, virtually withoulappeal, and executor. He
distributes blame, punishment and rewards. We know well that it is not .

in this fashion that a man becomes adult or acquires possession of his

true powers.
The emergence of wisdom, of knowledge of men and situations, in
this world closed in upon itself, can only come through the happy
chance when some teacher escapes and makes contact with the greater
world, that in which resistance by men and things is encountered, in
40

42
politics, art, civics and' in adult education.
For their part those in statutory or institutional authority have no
interest in change and do not desire change. The aim of institutions, on
behalf of the family or of the State, is that education should produce
conformity.
Most school and university systems existing today are perfectly
equipped to produce a type of individual who will assimilate collective
myths and terms of reference as revealed truths. What authofity of
every kind fears most is the questioning spirit.
C.

Factors of innovation
In these circumstances it is easy to understand that the necessary
changei and adaptations can only take place through the impact of
forces powerful enough to break resistance and overcome obstacles.
Four factors have in our times played a decisive role, and they continue
to act effectively. They are political revolutions, consumers'
contestation, development and its problems, and adult education. .

.Revolution
'Among factors that contribute to innovation one that calls for
attention in the first place is the political factor. ThOevolutions that
have occurred' in the past half-century have all, as is normal, taken the
form of brea with the past. The past was taken to mean economic
and social stru tures, traditional hierarchies and so forth, and also
systems of idea and points of reference. Naturally, education was a
weapon par exc lence for combating traditional influences and for
creating mental s ructures, attitudes and patterns of behaviour that
would favour the ew trend of histdry.
This indeed c e to pass, more particularly in those countries which
substituted socialist regimes for capitalist or feudal ones. (Me of the
priority aims was to ould the individual m socialist society froM the
standpoint of produc ion and of safeguarding the new institutions and
concepts of life.
Thus in the. Soviet Union, to take one example among others, the
content of curricula for children and adolescents is fundamentally
41

43
 different from that of the curricula of pre-revolutionary times, and The
cultural background itself has been deeply altered: Whereas under the
traditional dispensations culture and labour were kept apart, labour has
now assumed the place which belongs to it within the notion of culture,
in other words, it occupies a central position. The same may be said of
all forms of political and social commitment; the cultural content of
Which has also been recognised and suitably emphasiied. A considerable
step has been taken towards achieving unity of the factors which
constitute and mould the people's intellectual and spiritual destiny.
Particular importance has been attached to adult education. This
was historically logical, since there was no question of waiting for
'generations to grow up before the instruments of the new society were
available. It was also logical in terms of the Soviet system, which
stresses the utilisation of human resources and the equalisation of
opportunities throughout the life span.
A movement has been launched which should gradually lead to an
even more radical reform of educational theory.
Some countries have gone very far in the invention of new
educational forms. An example is Yugoslavia, which shows as much
imagination in the quest for solutions to educational problems as it
does in the political field-. The two are indeed closely linked. There are
few societies in which educational objectives play so preponderant a
part: they are present in the different manifestations of self-
administration, in the 'decentralisation of powers, in the application oil'
the principle of rotation of management personnel and so forth.
Yugoslavia is also, to our icnowledge, the first country to have adopted
the principle of lifelong education viewed as a basic link between all
the different sectors of education and as the foundation of the new
educational laws.

Consumers' contestaticn
A further decisive contribution to progress in ideas and in the renewal
of formulas was made in the last few years by the dissent of students.
It is likely that without the emergence of this factor the need fora new
departure would not have appeared as clearly as it has. As we all know,
dissent on the part of those concerned is, in the last analysis, the
42

4.1
determining factor in any advance towards reason, justice and true
order. This has been demonstrated in respect of labour, of women, of
colonial populations, and of all other categories subjected to any form
of domination, whether physical, economic, legal or cultural.
Events in recent years are too well known to call for elaborate
treatment. It is enough here to recall the importance of moment in
history when contestation, which has been the leaven of progress in all
vital areas of modem civilisation (the demands G: orkers, of women,
of coloured people, of colonial areas),-firtt entered the realm of
education, until then fiercely bristling with instruments of defence.
A major breach had thus been pierced, through student action, in
the battlement of educational conservatism; and through this breach
flowedan irresistible torrent of long-standing issues, swelled by new
issues and hastened by impatience and fresh hopes.
As has happened m cases of destitution, opression or injustice, the
victims here ceased to be resigned to their fate. Those who still accept
the defects and inadequacies of education as the outcome of a natural
order of things are less and less numerous.
Admittedly there is [Link] and much that is abusive in the
[Link]. Nevertheless student contestation represents a
fundamental and vital expression of that fighting spirit without which
not one of the necessary reforms can come to pass.

Development and its Problems

Yet another determining impulsion has come from the developing
countries, and this is doubtless one of the major contributions of the
latter to the common cause of all the countries of the world. Through
their endeavours the developing countries will assist in building the .
solid foundations of a modern civilisation giving due place both to the
global and collective interests of societies and to the natural and
justifiable hopes of individuals.
When, after the close of the Second World War, the development
problem emerged as a central priority, in the interests not only of the
welfare of the poor countries but-of stability and world peace, it
became inevitable that the socially and economically less developed
countries should turn towards the more favoured lands and seek their
.43

4r
guidance as to what makes a country strong and wealthy. The briefest
and most summary analysis soon revealed the importance of
educational action. Generation after generation, education has brought
forth men capable of imagination, qualified to organise, administer and
govern in accordance with the rules of a modern state. Without
education there is no knowledge, no competence, no spirit of
enterprise, no marshalling of a people's energies. Accordingly every
state upon attaining independence desired and gave priority to the
creation of those institutions that appeared as the buttresses of
development undertakings, namely schools-and universities. During the
past twenty years we have thus witnessed a spectacular extension of
educational structures throughout the world.
The available figures reveal not only the will to progress and the
energy of the countries engaged in this effort, but also the extent of
international assistance; for the rapid advances made were facilitated,
and in many cases rendered possible, through large-scale intervention
by the rich countries providing aid either in bilateral or in multilateral
form.
While it would be unjust and contrary to the facts to ignore this
important external contribution to community development wherever '

it occurred, it remains true that it is through educatiOnal activity that

the developing countries are gradually achieving independence. In
recent,years it has been due to the existence of schools and universities
that key posts in industry, trade, public administration and teaching
itself are filled by nationals and no longer by foreign incumbents.
Nevertheless, and in spite of this spectacular increase in numbers,
education is far from having fulfilled the hopes that had been rested in
it. In many cases, the returns from education, compared with other
forms of investment, have proved largely negative. Teaching-has proved
incapable of reaching the objectives set for it, namely to mould
individuals to the situations in which they are called upon to,conduct
their lives in a historical and geographical setting; to prepare them for
the concrete tasks [Link] of a society in a state of
development; to induce them to accept change; and to supply them
with the intellectual, scientific and technical equipment which would
permit them to take an active part in the evolution of structures,
institutions, customs and mentalities.
44

46
 In this group of countries even more than in others, the effect of the
educational effort has been to subject minds to archaic and obsolete
patterns of culture and civilisation. It is even true to say that in many
cases and in a variety of forms education as it now operates has
frequently proved an obstacle to development by reason of the gulf it
has established between intellectual concepts, the training of minds and
the formulation of individual and collective objectives on the one hand,
and realities on the other.
This hiatus between quantitative development and qualitative
backwardness brings us -to the heart of the concern which is felt by all
those theorists, practitioners, administrators and statesmen who
expect education to serve the true interests of man, both materially
and spiritually, from the twin standpoints of the individual and of
society. They are led increasingly to criticise the inheritance of the
past, a past which in large measure is not their own. Better. armed than
in the earliest days, they are gradually shaking off the paralysis of
settled habits of thought and 'feeling, that is to say on the one hand
respect and admiration for the undeniable achievements of the
countries which preceded them and of which they hold the inheritance,
but on the other a fear of the vacuum, more or less enduring, which the
disappearance of traditional forces may bring about.
For it is a fact that the installation of a new form of education
requires a volume of courage, of inventiveness, wisdom and ability
which far exceeds what is required by other forms of large-scale human
endeavour. But once the responsible circles have acquired the necessary
capacities and skills, the work' of renovation proceeds rapidly. It is
sufficient to cast doubt upon one single basic element in the
educational system, for example, concepts of culture, to undermine the
whole edifice and to make it unavoidable that solutions should be
found affecting the system as a whole.
At the present time not only cultural patterns are undergoing
scrutiny, but structures, objectives, curricula and methods. In' he
Ivory Coast for example, a radical spirit of research and innovation
governs the. reconstruction of the educational system. Indonesia also
has tackled the problem in an adventurous manner, while in Dahomey
a university is being planned in which the traditional divisions (letters,
45

47
 law, science, medicine, etc.) will be ignored and in which, priorities
having been identified, a form of interdisciplinary teaching will be
built up on the basis of a series of projects.

Adult Education
As it evolved, adult education was led to stress more sharply its points
of difference with traditional modes of education. But this affirmation
of separateness did not emerge at once: in its beginnings, towards the
middle of the nineteenth century, adult education was dominated by
patterns, for there was no alternative. The great majority of learners
were at that time workmen who depended entirely for their training
upon public and private institutions, their managements and staffs;
while teachers were themselves subject to traditional patterns of
culture, points of reference and upbringing.
Generationof workers attended evening classes because they sought
a means, through instruction, to attain better conditions of living and
greater security, or because they wished to satisfy a desire for
knowledge and understanding, or again because-they had to acquire
competitive weapons.
Unquestionably many of these adult learners benefited from the
1, effort they made. They acquired instruction, they improved their
situations and in one way or another set foot on those paths of modern
civilisation which call for schooling but at what a cost in
disappointments, misunderstandings and bitterness! The more pioneer-
minded'of these men and women, the bojder and more open-hearted
among them, ran headlong into,the wall ofcultural concepts. They
discovered for therhselves that instruction is a powerful instrument of
assimilation and conformity. They refused to let themselves be
assimilated by a culture of a bourgeois and conservative character which
exalted the values of the past, of inheritance, order and security [Link]
expense of those other values, struggle innovation and openness. They
reacted to the danger of a disembodied culture which'claimed
objectivity and detachment while it was in fact the chosen instrument
for the defence of the interests of the governing class. They rejected the
myths and mystifications of a universal reason which was foreign to the
circumstances and to the fight for recognition of rights and social
justice.
46

48
 Another cause of disenchantment for them was the operation of
the educational system. The teaching-they received was modelled on
the traditional patterns of instruction as dispensed to children: one-way
transmittal of knowledge, exercises, tasks, checking of the learning
acquired, examinations and diplomas. There was no attempt at
differentia! psychology, nothing but slavish adherence to the classical
structures of apprenticeship.
It is'against this background of intellectual, ideological, cultural
and methodological structures that a new form of adult education
gradually took shape, born and nurtured away from the traditional
paths of school and university in peoples' colleges (e.g. Denmark), in
organisations for mutual education, in workers' or co-operative
educational institutions, in movements or associations for popular
education, etc. Through the experience gained in these new-type
institutions there arose little by little a novel form of educational
relationship. The adult taking part in training or study activities cease.d
to be a pupil subject to external discipline and receiving knowledge
from a foreign source. From being subjected to education in
principle, the situation of every learner he became the instrument of
his own education and resumed command of himself as an adult. This
new individual became a person in the fullest sense of the term,
endowed with his own psychological and sociological options, aware of
his own individuality and engaged in a series of contests each having its
particular objective: the contest for survival, the contest for knowledge,
the contest for individual and collective advancement. Instead of being
condemned to an inferior status in relation to an instructor who was his
`master', the adult pupil became a partner in a collective undertaking in
which he was in a position bOth to take and to receive: receiving the
substance of learning, he could give in exchange the irreplaceable
wealth of his own manner of being a man and of accomplishing a man's
destiny as worker, citizen or other entity engaged in any one of a
multiplicity of situations and relationships. From that moment the
emphasis was on being rather than on having, and on having only to the
extent that resources feed and sustain the individual in meeting the
requirements and succeeding stages of his own development.
The motive power behind this new-style education also differed
47

43
totally from that which governed the teaching of children, namely
compulsion. Willing or unwilling, the child is compelled by law and by
his parents to abandon games and distractions for the sake of activities
of which the interest and attraction are not always clear to him. The
result is a great solidity in scholastic institutions, but at the same time
a degree of immobility and conservatism. Nothing of the sort now
affects the adult. He may, of course, be subject to indirect constraints
or pressures, some of an economic and others of a political character.
But an adult is seldom driven by force to take his place oitthe school
bench. As a general rule he will only sacrifice his leisure and take part .

in educational activities if driven by self-interest, if aware of the link

between what is offered to him and his own ambitions, hopes,
inquisitiveness and tastes. Where no such link exists the decision is soon
made: the adult stands aloof, or if he should -venture, will soon abandon
the experiment. .

This state of things carried with it a variety of consequences. In

respect of adults, education is now compelled to invent, to innovate
and to imagine. No curriculum can endure unless it takes into account,
not universal and abstract mail but the concrete individual in all his
dimensions and needs. Hence the obligation upon those responsible
for adult education to be on pernianent watch, to practise constant
self-instruction with particular attention to soundly based findings in
the human sciences. Equally essential is it foir each one of them to
modify the teacher's traditional image and to accept the fact that he
becomes an adult among other adults, with his own blend of knowledge
and ignorance, of abilities and incapacities. A solid basis of humility of
a scientific character, devoid of all arrogance, will permit the
development of a form of new dialogue, of a form of education in
which the teacher must give a great deal more, and in exchange receive
a great deal more, tnan in any other educational situation.
The results achieved in this sector are of considerable value, not only
with respect to the training and teaching of adults but in terms of the
whole educational effort. It is to adult education that we owe, inter
alia, the development of group dynamics, the use of audio-visual
teaching methods and research on leisure.
It is also from this quarter that have emerged basic thoughts and
48

50
proposals relating to lifelong education viewed as a principle of
coherence and continuity. The most percipient experts and those most
amenable to innovation have discovered that adult education would
inevitably be thwarted in its progress if the earlier stage, the teaching of
children and adolescents, remained in its present [Link]
from the evident but too often neglected truth that 'the child is
f Cher of the man' they have studied the concepts and operation of
ed tional structures and brought to light, on the one hand the
lacun s and inadequacies, and on the other the types of reforms which
are needd if the human being is to remain in a formative condition
throughoui his life, if he is to keep intact or better, to develop the
creative pc; ers which lie in every one of us and which aniunifying and
conformist tem must atrophy, to varying degrees. These pathfmders,
through their s uiries and suggestions and on the strength of the
experience acquir d, are in this way contributing effectively to the
formulation of a ne doctrine of education far more mindful of
realities and of the t of man than traditional doctrine.

49

51
THE SIGNIFICANCE OF LIFELONG EDUCATION

The totality-of the challenges enumerated in the first chapter -I some

of them traditional or coterminous with the human condition, others
relevant to this moment in history together widi the foregoing
analysis (previous chapter) of the forces whose impact is aimed at
innovation, throw light on the magnitude and complexity of the
responsibilities and tasks of education. As thinking and
experimentation proceed, there are emerging a number of
considerations which may help in understanding the range and
significance of the educational process.
The-notion that a man can accomplish his life span with a given set
of intellectual or technical luggage is fast disappearing. Under pressure
from internal needs and as an answer to external demand's, education is
in the process of reaching its true significince, which is not the
acquisition of a hoard of knowledge but the development of the
individual, attaining increasing self-realisation as the result of successive
experiences__
This being so, the current responsibilities of education may be
defined as follows:
First, the setting into place of structures and methods that will assist a
human being throughout his life span to maintain the continuity of
his apprenticeship and training.
Second, to equip each individual to become in the highest and truest
degree both the object and the instrument of his own development
through the many forms of self-education.
Within this general framework the following factors deserve special
attention.

Age and education

If it is agreed that the educational process must continue throughout
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52
 the life of the individual, then it is impossible to ailgue that there is an
age set aside for. education. Nevertheless there may be periods in life
when a particular effort in apprenticeship is reqUired. Similarly there
may be periodi of existence more favourable to 4 dy than others.
There is no simple or ready-made answer to th se questions. Without
doubt certain abilities are vulnerable to the onset\of age: it appears to
have been demonstrated that beyond a certain age, some sectors of the
memory lose their sharpness and elasticity; the absorption of certain
branches of knowledge for example mathematics or a foreign
tongue presents difficulties which in some cases prove
insurmountable. The same applies gaining skill in sports and games,
especially where disciplines are involved which run more or less counter
to natural motions and where only the suppleness of youth can serve.
Instances are dancing, violin-playing and skiing, in all of which skills,
reflexes and habits must be acquired at an early stage in life if a given
degree of performance is to be attained.
These examples, which are familiar to us all and which would seem
to indicate to the unthinking that there is a set age for learning,
nevertheless conceal another truth, which is that access to many forms
of physical and intellectual existence lies widely open at every stage of
the life span. .
-------The-kamine_pioces,[Link].a_habirrand_auyane_who in 1_Itsyouth has
mastered the drills of apprenticeship may at any time become an
initiate and a practitioner of new abilities. Certain forms of activity
indeed, far from degenerating, tend to improve steadily, on condition
only that they are kept in constant use. This is true, for example, of the
use of words both spoken and written, and more generally of all
processes and actions in which judgement plays an important role.
But the fundamental and true nature of the subject does not lie here;
for when we question the ability to learn, we do so in terms of a limited
and in part erroneous concept of the educational process.
The prospects of instituting lifelong education, and the need for it;
are to be judged not in ielation to other people or to a given body of
knowledge external to the pupil, but in relation to the personal
development of a particular individual.
Nothing is more bewildering and frustrating than the traditional
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53
conceptions of culture which underlie most op ions relating to
education. Culture-in a given individual is not easured by plus or
minus signs, by good marks and bad, awarded n terms of the volume
and quality of-the knowledge and know-how f another, az of a
hypothetical average intellectual model. A n's culture is the sum
[Link] the efforts and experiences throu hich he 1)as bec'ome
steadily more himself. These efforts and e eriences, even if he shares
them with thousands and millions of other human beings, are his own
and relevant only to himself. One man will have greater facility,
another will encounter difficulties in fulfilling himself. But such
differences in no way affect the fundamental finding that culture, only
exists to the extent to which it has been lived and tested within the
particular history of a man who is leading an existence, who is building
a life, who is conscious'of the universe and who takes part in its shaping
by his own actions:.
Viewed in this light any apprenticeship, research, study-or other
effort aimed at progress in understanding and in relations with others
assumes its place"and meaning in relation to a continuous constructive
process in which education :epresents the indispensable instrument.
While the disCipline of education has its place, as we have seen,
throughout the life span, it becomes more necessary than ever at those
critical moments which occur during the life of any individual.
The transition from one [Link] another from childhood to.
adolescence (which itself has several stages), from adolescence to
maturity in its various phases, from these to the third stage and finally
to the closing period of life raises problems on each occasion and
may even precipitate crises. Each stage has its strengths and weaknesses,.
its advantages and defects, and in any event a specific content. In order
that these moments of transition may acquire their full significince, in
order that they should prove, not moments 'Of disintegration but
elements of progress on the road towards sharper consciousness, more
secure knowledge and greater mastery over the self, a particular effort
of education is required on each occasion, as if for a fresh entry into
adolescence,
This educational effort must be made in terms of professional skill,
psychology and philosophy; it involves choices, sacrifices and resolves
52
,

5
 which themselves require a complex of training, information and
disciplines all forming part of a broad and penetrating concept of
life-long education.
In any event the educational process, if it is to be living and to
serve the developing being, must stand in positive relatidnship to time,
viewed as [Link] factor and in no way as a factor of destruction.
Accordingly educators must spare no effort to resist anynotion of ideas
and mores as being immutable; they-must strive not only to gain
acceptance for change, but to foster by every means an intelligent and
efficient participation in the various stagesOf change, whether this
takes place within an individual or in the world to, hich he relates.

Young people and adults

While it is true that education is a continuous process, it is nevertheless
a fact the forms it takes are not identical for young people and for
adults. Quite apart from differences in biological and psychical
maturity, the status and circumstances of these two segments of the
populati_ a vary substantially. There is obligation on the one hand and
freedom on the other. The child is subjected to the adult world as
personified by his parents or school authorities. He ii not in a position
to decide for himself and can neither choose what suits him best nor
reject that for which he has no desire or taste. In the context of
education he is a mere subject. The foundations, contents and method's
of the various educational systems into which he is slotted are imposed
from outside; others decide on his behalf what is good for him and
what will prove useful later, 'when he grows up'.
Thiw are very different for the adult. Except iti'very particular
circuOtances, no outside authority attempts to comp.', him to study,
to improve hiemental equipment, to become a better citizen or a more
knowledgeable and understanding head of family. [Link] as long as he has
not grasped that a specific benefit awaits him if he makes a 'particular
effort in the professional, civic or cultural field, he will keep out. And
when he has zone in, it is always open to him to withdraw.
In these circumstances adult education, and more generally any form
of education which is not compulsory, including out-of-school
- instruction of the young, provides a favourable stage for innovation.
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55
Programmes of this type are the origins of certain forms of education
whose universal significance, is now recognised, in particular group
work, organised discussion, participation in productive activities,
seminars and study courses, non-directional methods, the full use of
audiO-visual devices, etc. The future, of education regarded in its
entirety, and its capacity to renew ifself,accordingly depend upon the
development of adult education.
Lifelong education also emerges as a possible solution to one of the
critical problems of our modern societies, namely that which arises in
the relations between different generations. There is abundant proof
that communication and exchanges between the young and their elders
are in a poor state, to such a degree that in many cases the duologue
between father and son or professor and pupil is virtually non-existent.
And yet these exchanges are invaluable and indispensable both for the
reciprocal enrichment of the individuals concerned and'for the
equilibrium of society.
In the last analysis the main responsibility for this state of crisis
rests with the elders, since among other things they for their part were
once young whereas the young have never been adults. It is therefore
up to the elders to make the major effort towards understanding,
adaptation, renovation and imagination, without which communication
will remain impossible.
Above all, the element of authority must rapidly shift from a basis
of status and personality to one resting on competence am open:
mindedness towards others.
In Other words if the is to be merely heard, if his stock of
knowledge or his directives are torea-ch-the succeeding generation, he
must himself be in a state of learning. The adult must pay the price of
constant apprenticeship and p tress, of unceasing questioning of
himself, of his knowledge an. erience, if he hopes to gain the
attention hi seeks. This would seem to be the only path, leading to the
re-establishment and lively pursuit of the duologue.

Method and content

`Learning to learn' is now a much-worn formula whichhas become
54

5u
tedious through constant abuse as representing the perfect solution.
Yet it means exactly what it says. Henceforward in any learning process
the stress can no longer be laid on a necessarily limited and arbitrarily
fixed content; it must bear upon the ability to understand, to assimilate
and analyse, to put order into the knowledge acquired, to handle with
ease the relationship between the abstract and the concrete, between
the general and the particular, to relate knowledge and action, and to
co-ordinate training and information.
In a setting of lifelong eduCation thii is tantamount to equipping the
human being with a method which will be at his disposal thro ghoul
the length of his-intellectual and cultural journey. It implies at the
essence o'f the educational activity whether teaching in the trict
sense or; more broadly, instruction and training must aim at the .

acquisition of habits and reflexes, of capacities. Hence the emphasis

which should be laid on gaining practice, by every means and in every'
sense of the term.
Here again experience acquired in the out-of-school context is
instructive and helpful. Whether we are concerned with the training of
the mind, the development of the body, relationships with others,
initiation in spoken or written expression, the deciphering of various,
languages, introduCtion to music or the plastic arts, we find in out:of-
school experience a wealth of achievement, experiment and research
from which education in its totality could and should profit.

Training and selection

Development of lifelong education encounters a serious obstacle,
that of selection. The situation is well known: through the operation of
examinations and diplomas, a sorting-out takes place at the various
.7:-
stages of education, and even more sharply and definitively in its
concluding phase, between the qualified and the unqualified, the 'elect'
and the 'rejected' of the system. Failure and success are thus
institutionalised in a manner which is generally irrevocable.
We are also well aware of the defects of a system which attaches
undue weight an ideology of merit: Under the shelter of merit new
*privileges are in fact created, even though they are better concealed
55

57
 than in the past, when birth and wealth were the only criteria for
success.
Under the existing system in which moreover luck and chance
play dominant roles the quick-witted are privileged as against the
slow in thought, the intellectual type has the advantage over other
forms of human expression and other temperaments, the conformist
over the innovator, children from elegant districts over those from
slums.
Again, rejection resulting from failure in examination leads to an
unreasonable wastage of society's resources and investments both in
cash and in manpower. Nor can enough stress be laid on the damage
and emotional shock caused by failure both to those who endure it and
find themselves marginal beings and more, generally to all those for
whom the approach-of an examination [Link] stage of schooling
creates a particularlY\acute form of neurosis which, as we are all
aware, extends to the parents as well. Lastly, innovation and initiative
in the matter of curricula and methods are strongly inhibited by the °
tyranny of the examination.
Nevertheless it is impossible not to take account of the obligations
of selection, of the division of labour and of the distribution of tasks.
This issue lies at the centre of all thinking and action relating to
lifelong education: How is the educational system to be maintained in
an open condition? How,.underthe pressure of competition, can we
reconcile the demands of industry, agriculture, administration (to say
nothing of family ambitions) with the avowed objectiyes of equality of
opportunity and of the harmonious development of the individual in
accordancewith his character, ambitions and aptitudes?
We are faced here with a knot of problems whose solution naturally
concerns education itself, and within education, the teaching proCess,
but also affects the spirit, structures and functioning of modern
societies. What emerges clearly is that a broadenintof the prospects
`77
open to men in the matter of study, qualification, training and
professional improvement is an integral part of the necessary solution
if we are to equalize opportunities in accordance with the principles
of true and effective democracy.
56
Unity and coherence of the educational process
There is a striking contrast between the unitary character of an
individual's personality and destiny, and the diversity of means used for
his training. There would be no great danger in this if the various .

approaches corresponded to the different stages of a man's life and

the diverse replies he must give to different situations. This variety is
indeed not only unavoidable but can lead to fortunate results.
The problem here, however, is that of the antithesis, which is often
deep, between the individual's own trend and the guidance he receives.
On the one hand we have the same rim, thinking, acting, rejoicing Or
mourning, developing pr losing ground. On the educational side, on the
other hand, it is as if a collection of different individuals has been
brought together by chance into one mould and required to reconcile
as best they could demands which were frequently incompatible. In the
teaching he receives at school, in the fainily, the factory, the training
workshop or the trade union, the individual producer, consumer and
citizen receives teaching, instruction and forms of training of which
the objectives and results do not harmonise.
Lifelong education represents an effort to reconcile and harmonise
these different stages bf training in such a manner that the individual is
no longer in conflict with himself. By laying stress on the unity, the
all-roundness and the continuity of development of the personality, it
leads to the formulation of curricula and instruments of education that
create permanent communications between the needs and lessens of
professional life, of cultural expression, of general development and of
the various situations for and through which every individual completes
and fulfils himself.
In this perspective an effort at systematisation cannot be avoided.
But the notion of system is here used to indicate research aimed at
giving coherence and clarity to the interlocking mechanisms and the
interdependence of the different aspects and stages of the educational
prodess viewed in its entirety. Although many elements of lifelong
education exist already, either within the orbit of school and
institutional education or at the level of out-of-school education, what
is so far lacking is an overall view of the problem which would permit a
57

59
wise distribution of responsibilities and would assist the process of
thinking out-and preparing for a reform of structures, the need for
which isin any, event acknowledged. Since the Second World War there
have 'seen in various western countries up to a dozen attempts which
have failed, while education has moved from change to change without
finding either internal equilibrium or satisfactory answers to the
[Link] of modern society. It doubtless proved impossible and
would be vain today to seek answers to these questions without
having recourse to a new concept of education in4hich account would
be taken of the constant and universal need of human beings for
training, instruction and progress.
In any such concept, in which education would find its place in
every sector of existence and would continue throughout the course of
the personality's development, a'great number of the barriers which
now separate, often hermetically, the various orders, and stages of
educational action would have to disappear, giving way to living and
purposeful intercommunication. Education can from now onwards be
viewed as a coherent structure of which each part is dependent upon
the others and only has ;ignificance in relation to those others:If one
part is missing, the rest of the structure loses its equilibrium and no
other part is in a position to render the specific services for which it
was created. We must therefore proceed to a series of harmonisations,
both in the field of theory and in that of practical achievements.

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60
 CONTENTS, DIMENSIONS AND OBJECTIVES

It is thus apparent that lifelong education is not a mere prolongation of

conventional education. It involyes a number of'approaches of a new
kind to the vital elements in the existence of every individual,
beginning with the very significance [Link] existence. It enables us to
1 perceive a whole series of fundamental situations in which individuals
` appear under a new light;'and it brings novel solutions to certain crucial
\ problems affecting the destiny of persons and societies.
\ Education represents the conscious, deliberate and well-equipped
aspect of that steady progression which is the law of all human beings.

/We should of course not over-estimate the place and function of

education in the fulfilment of particular or collective destinies. Proper
as it is to insist on the inescapable necessity of making this effort, it
J cannot be recalled too often that there are structures which favoui and
/ others which inhibit the flowering of personality. Physical destitution
creates and [Link] and intellectural destitution*. Men living on
the margin of subsistence are also living on the margin of humanity.
Working for the construction of a society that will assure to its
citizens a broad and equitable share in both consumer goods and
cultural resources is synonymous with working towards spiritual
betterment. Only Utopians,still lost in a falsely idealistic vision of
civilisation can maintain that there is a separation between material
and spiritual values. These values derive from the same noble ambition.
The elements of a policy of cultural development, and*within the
general framework of that policy of the corresponding strategy, are
the following: to provide all inhabitants of a country with decent
housing conditions enabling the family to play its full role in the home
as well as its educational function; to develop productivity in such a
way as to Increase the income of every individual and to increase the
opportunities for consumption and for the enjoyment of cultural
benefits; to increase the number of physical and institutional structures
59

61
that favour, the development of social interchange and every form of
intercommunication; to set up in sufficient numbers museums, libraries .

and cultural centres; and to provide all the instruments of teaching

schools,institutes and universities required to meet both the thirst
for knowledge and the demand for skilled manpower.
Action in all its forms, not excluding politicataction, is thus the
indispensable instruihent for establishing structures that will mark
the different stages of that conquest of self which is the very purpose
of education. This being so, any attempt at setting political action in
opposition to cultural experience [Link] and, in the last analysis,
doomed to failure.
It is nevertheless true that another illusion would be to imagine that
a transformation of material and social structures, even in a progressive
sense, would suffice to meet all the demands of the personality.
Political action has obligations to meet towards the fundamental
principles which govern the latter. Ultimately, are not the only sound
policy and the only sound administration those which, in their
principles, objectives and methods, take full account of what has been
termed by one familiar with the subject 'the human scale'?
The argument goes further. Even the best policy, one which goes
nearest to meeting the desires of men of culture and of educators,
has limited scope. It can, and doubtless must, create the framework
within which individual destinies can find fulfilment in favourable
circumstances. But it cannot, even under the guise of a cultural policy,
claim to take the place of the particular and original effort, unique in
direction and expression, which every man is compelled to undertake
on his own account.
If, on the other hand, education is to be in a position to help men
lo live, then it must itself be alive. Many are dissuaded from treading its
paths not only because it calls for effort, labour and much assiduity,
but also because it has so far failed, with very few exceptions, to
draw sustenance from living sources and to meet life's needs.
For nine persons out of ten education means school, an activity of a
particular nature expressed in terms of curricula, methods and specialised
staff a world apart which can only be described in an epithet peculiar
to itself, `scholastic'. School is a parenthesis in life, with its entrances
60

C2
and exits. On entry the pupil puts on the garb of the schoolboy, to be
shed at the time of departure. We can understand why adults hesitate
to play this game, and why the only ones who accept are those driven
by need or obligation, generally of an economic or professional
character.
If education is to play the part we have described throughout the life
of the individual andni all the dimensions of the latter's existence, it is
clear that the prime 'need is to draw it [Link] the school framework so
that it occupies the totality of human activities, relating to leisure as
well as work. Education is not an addendum to life imposed from
outside. It is no more an asset to be gained than is culture. To use the
language of philosophers, it lies not in the field of `having' but in that
of `being'.
The individual at different stages of development and in varying
circumstances is the true subject-matter of education. It is accordingly
difficult, and perhaps impracticable, to give education its place in any
precise way. We find it wherever there is a conscious effort to be made,
an option to be taken, a spiritual hurdle to be overcome, a contact of
an intellectual, emotional or aesthetic nature to be established.
Nevertheless we can identify a- number of priority situations in which
educational action is particularly desirable. We find them Sometimes in
an individual context and sometimes in a collective context, but more
generally astride the two.

The life span

The first and no doubt the basic difficulty lies in the relationship which
man establishes with his own expectation of life. The transition from
one age to another is always accompanied by crises and may even
assume a convulsive character. According to the manner in which the
individual accepts passage into a new phase of his existence, settles
down into a new mode of life and continues to keep in Contact with
the world and with his fellow beings, so age will signify success or
failure, wealth or poverty, joy or distress, wisdom or madness.
The mere passage of years has in itself no significance and does not
automatically imply a condition of saturation. Here education is
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63
all-powerful, for a man may be moulded and trained to follow the
rhythm of his own development. One first victory is to not allow time
to acquire a minus value but to regard it as a factor of enrichment.
On this solid basis a man may explore the ever new fields open to him
and gather the fresh harvests which lie before him. Another important
element in this process is that of becoming aware of the beginning and
ending of the stage of life one has reached.

Man and woman

The man/woman relationship leads to analogous thoughts. There is no
situation which calls for so much preparation, so much intelligent and
continuous effort - and there is none in which so much is left to.
improvisation and chance. A man desires or loves a woman and
because they come together, all appears to be settled: whereas all is at
its beginning. Ars amatoria reaches far beyond the summary prescriptions
of Ovid and his imitators. This is a rundamental and particularly
[Link] of the art of life, and as in every other part of that art,
it calls for apprenticeship.
Cohabitation during a whole life, or even during a part of a life,
entails a multiplicity of problems for the solution of which mutual
attraction and affection are not enough. To say nothing of the
indispensable sentimental education, each partner must learn to know
and accept the other and his or her individual traits, as a
representative of the opposite sex and as a [Link] entity. One
must realise that the emotional realtionship [Link] rule out the
generally accepted laws of sociability and cannot develop satisfactorily
except in a climate of friendship. It is worthy of note and here we
anticipate some comments to be made later that in a successful
partnership each of the two plays towards the other a positive role of
educator at every level of the personality. The basis of this educational
action, as that of any other, is of course reciprocal attentioAnd interest
in the diversity of forms of expression of human_nature.
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64
Parents and children
Similar problems arise in the relationship between parents and children.
An illusion of the same type as that which can spoil relations between
the couple is that it is enough to bring children into the world and to
cherish them to have known and done for the best. Here again there
must be a sentimental education, of a different nature but as exacting
as in the previous case. Communication within the family is generally-
woven with incomprehension and misunderstanding. Traditional
society did not waste time on subtlety: rituals and customs showed
sufficiently clearly and firmly what paths to follow. The father, acting
by definition and by convention, imposed respect, while the mother
contributed the necessary modicum of warmth and understanding.
These at least were the patterns that were generally accepted and only
disowned in exceptional cases.
Today on the contrary it is recourse to beaten paths and accepted
patterns [Link] to be the exception. This is not an occasion for
protest, but a problem that must be squarely faced. We have nowadays
as many original and particular situations as there are family complexes.
Each demands its own formula, which calls for imagination and
invention as well as the use of the broadly recognised tenets of the
human sciences. True authority and the ability to guide and help the
young can only be won at the cost of an effort in understanding and a search
a search of conscience.

The profession
It is hardly necessary to draw attention to the links which exist
between education and the demands of the profession. This is an
aspect of lifelong education which stands out very clearly and which is
widely recognised. Individuals on their own account, undertakings in
the interests of productivity, and society as a whole, for motives of
both enlightened economics and social justice, all turn towards
education as a means of improving professional qualifications.
Innumerable forms of labour-promotion are practised in an increasing
number of countries.
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65
One element, however, is yet far from having been recognised either
in theory or in practice, namely the close and organic link which exists
between professional training and general education, or in other words
the totalitrOf the individual's educational needs in terms of his
development. While a man's profession is no doubt the most important
issue in his life, it still remains, in the educational context, at the
periphery of his being. From this standpoint the necessary effort of
thought and achievement must be [Link] greater integration.
For as long as culture is defined, offered and doled out in a literary,
philosophical and artistic context, or as a range of activities appertaining
almost exclusively to leisure time, so long will the worker have the
utmost difficulty in situating the essentials of his thinking and ingenuity
within a true system of values. It is therefore of the highest importance
to attribute to the :concept of work, both in theory and in fact, its true
significance as a cultural activity in the deepest and truest sense of the
term.
This naturally presupposes a policy of production in which the
conditions and rewards of labour are not inhuman. it is possible in
practice, using labour activities as a framework and point of departure,
to lead the working man through appropriate methods to a broad
and penetrating vision of the main features and problems of the society
in which he exists. Moreover so -called general education, that is to say
learning the use of the instruments of expression and of scientific
knowledge, acquires its full significance and its strongest motivation
when it prepares men to exercise their profession. With the prospect of
increasing mobility of labour, the more education becomes generalised.
in the sense of the development of abilities and capacities, the greater
will be its practical results.

Education for leisure

A similar need for education is apparent in the field of leisure. Much
has already been written about the place of leisure in the life of
individuals, groups and communities. A Regional Conference on Adult
Education and Leisure in Contemporary Europe, held at Prague in
April 1965, threw light upon the importance, role and functions of
64
education in the endeavour to assure that leisure should assist man in
his development rather than prove harmful to him. One recommendation
of this conference is of particular significance in this context:

`... adult education is made up of a complex of activities most

of which take place during leisure, and . . . at the same time it offers
a variety of means whereby the use of leisure time, in its totality,
may contribute more fruitfully to the development and enrichment
of the personality;
`. .. [account must be taken of] the variety of the [aspects and)
functions of'adult education and of cultural development, such as
vocational and technical education, study for personal pleasure, the
formation of judgement and a greater appreciation of the use of
leisure, the dissemination of cultural achievement and the evaluation
of forms of recreation

It must, however, be stressed that the coexistence of leisure and work

has to be thought out. One and the same man has to live through these
two facets of existence, and the manner in which he reacts to either will
have deep repercussions on the content of the other.

Artistic experience
While it is true that leisure time has no monopoly of the cultural
experience of indiyiduals, it is nevertheless within the framework of
leisure that room is found for most of the activities that have as their
object intellectual, moral or aesthetic development. A man may read,
talk, stroll, broaden his vision of the universe and his understanding of
its laws, go to the theatre or take up acting, make music, paint, sketch,
listen to poetry and recite it; in any of these ways he can on the one
hand occupy the free time that is allowed him usefully and agreeably,
and on the other, more significantly, express the fundamental demands
of his being. Here again inborn intelligence or responsiveness, or talent,
are not enough. Intellectual or aesthetic expression is not content with
improvisation: the dilettante will soon reach the limits of his powers of,,
65

67
expression, will become weary and will turn away from pursuits that
only provide him with mediocre gains, Here again, as in every other
walk of life, the price to be paid takes the form of work: to know, to
express; to communicate require constant effort. There is no way of
avoiding study and persistent application-for one who aspires to acquire
and master the languages and instruments proper to each intellectual
discipline and to each art form.

Physical education and sport

`A world-wide social phenomenon whose roots ramify deeply into
the young and adiiit lives of men and women participation and
spectacle, discipline and recreation, profession and education;
health and culture sport is no longer related to the whims of
individual escapism. Henceforward it is closely linked sometimes
as cause, sometimes as effect or mere symptom, but always
noteworthy with the major problems upon whose solution the
future of our civilisation depends:, the higher proportion of young
people in populations, urbanisation, community organisation in
rapidly developing societies, the building of structures in states that
have suddenly become independent, the use of leisure resulting
from mechanisation of work or from underemployment....'

In these words Mr. Rene Maheu, Director-General of Unesco, defined

the role of sport in contemporary life.' It could not be better stated
that sport today knows neither geographical borders nor social
stratification, that it attracts men of all trades and professions, that it'
provides an 9pportunity for healthy exercise at all ages and that having
broken the bounds of an occupation reserved for specialists, it has
acquired the dimensions of universal culture.
This is at the same time a claim that sport, with which are now
associated all open-air activities, should take its due place in lifelong
education. And this is to be understood in a twofold sense.
In the first place the view must be rejected that physical and sports
training is only undertaken during a brief period of life. It is far too
66

68
often negfected at the primary-school stage, when circumstances
are nevertheless favourable for psychological and physiological
development; it is most frequently found ;n programmes at the
secondary-school stage; and in certain countries it only plays 'a very
minor role in the activities of apprentices and university students; while
it disappears totally at the moment when the individual enters adult
'fie. This episodic and secondary treatment of sport in the,educational
field is in dangerous contrast with the importanceassumed by sport
in all sectors of the community and in even breeding unhealthi,
attitudes among sports managers, the athletes themselves and the
spectator masses.
This. fmding should lead us in the second place to achieve a better
integration of sport and lifelong education as a whole, to release, sport
from its purely muscu!ar function and from its cultural isolation, to
mingle it more closely with intellectual, moral. artistic, social and civic
activities. The v' conception of lifelong education, humanist and
harmonious, is here at stake; it commands the overall training of
educators and the full installation of centres of popular culture in
which, within the same precinct, will be found both the library and
the sporting facilities.
Not only muscles andnerve, skill and a keen eye, are involved when
we speak of physical education. As has been indicated in a recent issue
of a pedagdgical review, the key problem is that of living within one's
body as an integral part and buttress of one's total personality. The
body has its own language, which it is as important to master as the
languages of the mind or of the heart all of them indeed closely
linked together and interdependent. To fight against-the various forms
of physical illiteracy is in fact one of the major objectives of lifelong
education.

Mass communication media

Relations between individuals and the majormodern media of mass
communication, radio, television and the cinema raise very similar
problemS. There is no question here of taking up a position regarding
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69
 0

the respective and comparatiye merits Of audio-visual messages as

contrasted with the written word,'What matters here is, first of all, to
.acknowledge the all-powerful nature of these media, and next, to
become clearly and exactly aware of education's responsibilities towards
the media. Only a retarded spirit sunk in a nostalgic and restrictive
view of cultural life would deny the determining role that they play in
assuring communication betwe 'en men and the worldyits events and
,ideas, and the highly diverse expressions of the human genius. For the
first time in the world'shigtoiy-anyhillividual at any point of the
globe finds himself connected with the life of individuals in other
continents and lands. The daily sustenance of hundreds of millions
of listeners and viewers now includes Bach, Beethoven, Stravinsky,
Armstrong, Shostakovich, Tagote, Shakespeare,Fharlie Chaplin and
Orson Wells to pick out a few great names in Music, literature and
the theatre. For every citizen in the world, awareness of humanity is
ceaselessly growing in volume and content.
Whatever reservations may be felt about these innovations and
there are many they can only be taken into account if we
acknowledge the vast and unique advantages of the media, while-
recognising that, as in the case of most of the important inventions
which mark the history of civilisation, they cause disturbance as much
as they bring benefit. Their content and message are deliberately
amliiguous and appear under various guises. The impact of new images,'
notions and values, often contradictory, upon traditional cultures,
may and often does have an explosive effect. Moreover, while it is true
that the media can .convey cultural messages, the mediocre and the bad
jostle the good and frequently have the advantage in quantitative .
terms. There is an even more dangerous threat to which attention has
often been drawn, namely that through their very power and attraction
for the masses, radio and especially television tend to fill up the whole
span set aside for leisure activities and thus to exclude occupations of
more substance and commitment such as reading, social relationships
andjparticipation in active forms of usage of free time. These are only
a few of the numerous evils which daily experience and repeated
inquiries have revealed.
There is no doubt that,the political authorities have both
68
 responsibilities and powers of intervention to curb these damaging
effects and to draw from the new facilities placed at our disposal all
the benefits that can properly be expected from them. These
authorities mint, with all the necessarj, cautio , take an interest in the
content and value of broadcasts and programmes om the standpoint
both of culture and mental health. Recent inquiries ve revealed what
mental and psychological damage can be done to you children and
adolescents by programmes blending stupidity, phantasm, horror and
violence:Nevertheless there is-a limit to powers of authority,
either because it has itself to give heed to concerns which have little to
do with culture, or because 'censorship' is not sufficiently enlightened.
In the final analysis the only effective filters are good judgement,
good taste and the intellectual courage of the consumers of these
cultural wares. Listeners and viewers must be encouraged and trained
through painstaking and systematic education to exercise choice. They
must become accustomed from childhood, from the family circle and
the school, to choose; they must get into the habit of saying 'yes' to
one type of programme and `no' to another. Choice must also be
brought to bear upon the amount of time devoted to this category of
entertainment and information. The hardest and also the most
essential apprenticeship of man at leisure is undoubtedly that of
learning to give his true time rations to work and rest, to participation
and solitude, to play and to study.

Education of the citizen

Lastly all due importance must be accorded, in any programme of
lifelong education, to the training of citizens. By this term is meant
manas a public entity at all levels of his commitment, whether to the
nation, the community, the international fraternity, or various groups of
a social character such as trade unions, co-operatives, associations for
popular culture, women's dubs, etc. Viewed in this light, the need for
training is universal. The links between education and democracy have
often been stressed and illustrated. On the one hand the development
of knowledge and understanding promotes the creation and
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71
 strengthening of democratic forms of power and administration;
on the other, democracy can only flourish and operate normally if the
country can rely in increasing numbers upon citizens who are interested
in the res publics, whose judgement is informed and who are capable
of undertaking responsibilities within the various structures and at the
different levels of national life. The smooth working of the wheels and
cogs of such a regime demand from every inhabitant in the land a
regular and systematic effort at keeping informed, and beyond this,
earnest and sustained study of the problems with which the 'nation is
faced. How else could we hope that the voting will be consonant with
the true interests of the country and that representatives Will be
chosen in the light of their capacities and of their attachment to the
common cause?
Much as judgement and Competence are needed in the ordinary
citizen, they are even more essential, and at a higher degree, in all those
who occupy responsible posts such as town councillor, trade-union.
secretary, co-operative manager, etc. Acceptance of any public office
requires on the part of the individual concerned that he give proof of
earnestness and become familiar with all the substance of his task.
The alternative to such dedication is frivolousness, and, as a
consequence, poor administration.
Again, the smooth operation of a modern democracy presupposes
the emergence of a new type of politician and administrator. It is
essential that those who govern, at whatever level, should cast off the
character of sacredness which attaches, through traditions derived from
the ancient past, to any person exercising power. It is well known that
power tends to isolate and constantly to corrupt. A man holding power
should therefore be particularly vigilant in fighting off the professional
diseases that threaten a range of activity which is especially susceptible
to them, both intellectually and morally. It is indeed through straight
dealing, a natural approach and a devotion to truth that communication
can be established between go_vernors and governed. Education of the
citizen requires above all that the man in the street should findin his
leaders the image of aemocracy in thought and action, and also in
ethics. Only at this price will he feel personally concerned in the
problems of the polis and will he give intellectual and emotional
70
support to the good working of public institutions. ?i
This aspect of lifelong education assumes a priority character in the
developing countries. Quite apart from the intense educational effort
which must be directed towards the masses in order that they may
shoulder their civic responsibilities and take an active part in the
construction of the nation, there is an urgent need, which will indeed
continue to be felt over many years, for the [Link] training
of managerial ranks, and this need is evident at all levels. Industry,
agriculture, transport and public services must all rapidly find
managers, foremen, specialised workers and accountants. Very
particular attention must be given to the training of'administrators
capable of keeping the wheels of state moving, and in the first place
of implementing the measures laid down in development plans. Failing
an effort'of training and qualification matching the level of these needs,
the autonomy of these countriv will remain a hollow formula and their
economies will not reach the point of take-off within a measurable
period.

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SUGGESTIONS FOR ASTRATEGY OF LIFELONG
EDUCATION

There can be no question of proposing a pattern for lifelong education.

Every country has its own structures, its traditions, its inhibitions and
its facilities. Moreover, historical evolution is such that any given
moment in a society's history one element assumes priority over all
others. We may, for example, imagine -- and this has actually
occurred that following a revolution, and for a long time thereafter,
a country will devote its chief efforts to adult education, in the
meantime leaving other aspects of the educational process more or less
in abeyance. The relative scarcity of resources compels selection and
sacrifice. This is particularly true of developing countries, where
availabilities in terms of qualified manpower and materials are often as
deficient as financial resources themselves. Nevertheless the obstacles
which impede the realisation of ideal plans should not discourage
countries from seeking practical solutions, following the main lines
indicated by the principles of lifelong education, namely:

The need to assure continuity of education, in such a manner as

to prevent the wearing away of knowledge.
The adaptation programmes and methods to the particular and
original objectives of each community.
The moulding of human beings, at every level of education,
towards a kind of life in which evolution, change and transformation
can find a place.
A large-scale marshalling and use of all means of training and
information, going beyond the traditional definitions and institutional
limits imposed upon education.
The establishment of close links between various forms of action
(technical, political, industrial, commercial, etc.) and the
objectives of education.
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4
Highly diverse formulae can be built upon these principles, taking
account of differing aspects but all obeying the same imperative, that is
to say to render education an instrument of living sustained by life's
contributions and equipping men to face up to the tasks and
responsibilities of their existence with success.
At the same time it has been thought useful to spell out below some
suggestions of a [Link] which it is hoped might prove of
service to those concerned in identifying their objectives and means of
action.

Trends
The foregoing pages indicate the emergence of two major trends, one
moving towards adults and the other towards children and adolescents.
We add below a few reflections concerning the relation between
literacy and lifelong education.

The trend towards adults

The action of non-governmental undertakings is decisive, not only
because it is necessary to take ideological diversity and a variety of
situations and interests into account, but also because the spirit of
innovation an I research can only have full play in a climate of
independence and decentralisation. Thought and practice in the
educational field have constantly benefited during recent generations
from the contributions and achievements of a sector in which the forces
of self-interest, supply and demand carry weight at all times.
Nevertheless the state cannot remain aloof from a sector which is of
vital interest to the nation, and it has already begun to show its hand
in a number of fields, even though on a scale which bears no relation
to the importance of the problems to be solved. We have only to
enumerate a few areas in which the State, in varying degrees and in a
form adapted to each-particular case, can and must intervene if adult
education is to be given the required volume and efficacy.

Finance. In most countries adult education is still a poor relation.

Finance made available to types of education external to the school
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I4
and the university amounts only to a very modest fraction of the
monetary effort made by governments to meet the training needs of
individuals. Every official statement declaring the value, importance
and urgency of action in favour of adult education is belied year after
year by budgetary evidence. There is of course no question of public
authority shouldering the totality of the costs involved in popular
education: this would be neither realistic from the standpoint of
national resources, nor desirable if it is admitted that adults must
contribute to their own education through a variety of initiatives, .

including that of sharing the cost. But the resources that individuals
and associations can bring together are and will always be far below the
magnitude of the objectives set up"for education. Large-scale
participation by the State is therefore unavoidable, either in the shape
of direct investment where government intervention is called for, or
indirectly through grants supporting the action of private organisations.
This requires from public authority an understanding of a complex
situation in which non-governmental bodies carry out tasks of a national
character which the State could not undertake with equal competence.
and authority but for which it is bound to provide financial backing as
solid as that provided for other types of educational activity.

Law and administration. The development of adult education meets

with all kinds of obstacles deriving from the living conditions of a great
part of the population that part, indeed, which is most closely
concerned with such development.
If the new societies which have been forecast are to be capable of
taking heed of the fundamental needs of the human being, they will
have to pay the closest possible attention to the educational needS,
some of which have been identified in the foregoing pages.
hi so far as the generality of structures is concerned, it will be agreed
that the extremely low level of incomes in certain sectors of the
industrial and agricultural population niust confine the thoughts of the
individuals concerned to matters of subsistence, and that in such
circumstances it would be largely Utopian to suppose' that individuals
who can have no other horizon than that of the struggle for existence
could be led on to the paths of cultural life. Short of hypocrisy it is
74
impossible to deny the fundamental thought that 'the struggle for
culture, at the level both of individuals and of society considered as a
whole, must be preceded by the struggle for development for wages and
housing, for transport, for health, law and justice, and so forth.
These objectives of the new, modern societies are closely linked,
especially if we consider that the installation of a new mode of life
calls for the intelligent and competent participation of an ever
increasing proportion of the population, and that this involves a great.
expansion in the number of educational undertakings, professions, civic
and cultural.
Nevertheless, and without awaiting a radical recasting of the
structures of society, it is feasible and desirable that there should in the
near future be a substantial increase in measures of a legislative and
administrative character designed to remove some of the obstacles
mentioned above. These measures can be grouped under the following
headings.

Participation of workers in the management of undertakings.

This priority objective has its political and economic aspects, but has
also highly important educational implications. The introduction of
participationis in itself calculated to develop the sense of responsibility
(which is one of the major objectives of adult education) and at the
same time to increase knowledge of the machinery of the undertaking
and of the economy. Genuine participation is the key to an essential
sector of modern man's culture, to the extent' hat it establishes a link
between action and knowledge from the point of view of structures as
well as motivation.
Adjustment ,of work time-tables. Educational and cultural activities
are consumers of time. Except in a very few countries, work is so
organised that the miner if the office worker is tied to a time-table
which makes excessive demands upon him and is irrational. This is a
complex problem having, beyond considerations of efficiency in
productive and administrative operations, psychological and other
aspects concerned with habits and behaviour. It is sufficiently
important to deserve systematic study.
Action within the undertaking. Undertakings are ready to recognise
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77
the need to renew the equipment used in production at regular
intervals, as one of the measures falling within the normal reckoning of
investment, productivity, etc. But pressure must be brought to bear
upon them if they are to agree to admit that the refreshment of the
staff's knowledge and technical capacity is as imperative a need as the
economic drive. The further training of an engineer, technician or
official is a form of enrichment of the collectivity, and it is neither fair
nor efficient to leave it to the individuals to bear the costs. This is
another problem which deserves close study under all its aspects and
which should be the subject of legislative and administrative action.
Among necessary innovations, priority should be given to a type of
measure which is already in force in a number of countries (mostly
those with socialist regimes) aimed at including-the hours spent on
specified educational activities within the normal working time-table.
It might also be envisaged that workers preparing for diplomas should
benefit from a given number of days (or weeks) annually, to be granted
in the period immediately preceding their examinations.
The State might give the example in introducing such measures in
nationalised undertakings, for they provide an answer to the concern
for greater equality of opportunities for promotion and access to
culture, while at the same time fostering the demand for greater
efficiency.

Equipment. Educational action is closely related to the policy of

cultural development. While it is true that, as a result of the current
transformation of minds and of teaching methods, stress must
increasingly be laid on self-education, the fact remains that the adult
must be assisted in his efforts at every stage of his educational
progression by appropriate institutions continuously supplying the
material and the stimulus that he needs.
Two solutions lie open: one is to create new institutions, as
comprehensive in scope as possible and open to all sectors of the
population: libraries and museums within easy reach of the users,
cultural centres, vocational training schools, etc.; the other is to
stimulate and facilitate the use for adult education purposes of existing
structures such as schools, collegesand universities. Regarding the
76
latter, nations have at their disposal a complex f means and resources
which are largely wasted, in the absence of an over-all conception of
educational action. Such a conception show heneceforward govern all
school construction programmes, in the spikit which has inspired such
achievements as the 'village colleges' in the United Kingdom or the
educational and cultural centre at Yerres in France. The argument is
still more valid when applied to the major communication media,
radio and television, over which the State' frequently exercises a
tt asi-monopoly and which, if competently used, constitute powerful
instruments of training as well as information.

Services. Public authorities are in a position to Inder considerable

services, and indeed some have already begun to do so, although on
iminor scale. Apart from direct financial assistance, to which reference
has been made above, these authorities can take effective action in two
priority areas.
Rairiing of staff. Experience and study show that adult education
cannot follow the paths laid out by traditional teaching methods
intended for children. Programmes designed for adults can only be
carried through effectively and reach their objectives if those
responsible for the work have undergone psychological, sociological,
technical and educational training of a type. specifically matching
adults' motivations, their absorptive capacities and the demands of
their development. These problems are of such magnitude and
complexity as to exceed the powers of most private institutions. Only
the State is in a position to meet requirements in an appropriate
manner.
The way has already been shown in a few countries through the
creation of national training institutes; but public authorities are
frequently chiefly concerned with sport and physical education,
sometimes to the detriment of other aspects of the training of young
persons and adults.
Here again there is a need for co-ordination and-harmonisation
between the private and public sectors. *hile it is true that only the
latter sector is able to mobilise means of action of sufficient magnitude,
we should not for that reason disregard the essential, and indeed
77
fundamental, contribut'on represented by the experience gained in
popular education circle , always freer ictheir action and better placed
to give expression to the esires of the adult population in all its
diversity of types and nee s.
Research. If training is to rest on sound foundations and to meet the
needs of society and individuals, it is essential that it should constantly
profit from the contribution of the human sciences. Here again the
State, through its research in titutions and through the universities, is
better placed than private bo ies to advance knowledge and to promote
the use of the psychological, s ciological, economic and statistical
elements which come into play 'n this vast undertaking, the continuous
education of the nation.

The trend towards children \

Whatever the volume and depth of any campaign undertaken on behalf
of adult education, success can only follow if equally resolute action is
take to amend the structures, curric la and methods of the first stages
of education, those designed for chil ren and adolescents. For the chief
agent of adult education is the adult imself, with on the one hand his
leanings, capacities, hopes and motiva ions, and on the other obstacles,
dead ends and bottle-necks of various rts. At the same time as he is
moulded by the life he leads, the adult is heir to the child he once was.
The consequence is that if, in his early ji ars, he received a type of
training that made him turn away from s udy and progress, or that did
not prepare him adequately for the type f persistence and effort that
the continuity of the educational process alls for, he is in essence a lost
cause in terms of adult education.
This is not the place to undertake a criti al examination of the
contents of the training currently being disp nsed in schools and
universities. It is sufficient to say that this tr ining is based on archaic
models constructed for the most part in term of aristocratic societies;
and that it has only been tinkered with since, ithout any attempt to
test its spirit and methods in the light of the new objectives of modern
societies. The deficiencies of such teaching are becoming clearer and
clearer. We need only recall here what has been analysed at greater
length elsewhere, namely that it rests upon a truncated concept of
,
78
personality: the capacity to acquire knowledge is given precedence over
all other forms of expression, emotional, social, aesthetic or physical.
No consideration is given to differences of character, and those pupils
who do not conform to pattern become marginal, as do those whose
divelopment is slower than the average rate. The need for selection
prevails over th D demands of training. Failure is institutionalised at the
cost of senseless wastage of intellectual and monetary investment.
Theie are only a few of the more unhappy 'aspects of a range of systems
which shows every sign of exhaustion. The time has come to give
unceasing battle in order to arrive at a new form of education based on
criteria of reason and efficiency, and so shaped as not to outrage
human nature.
In relation to adult education, action of this type aiming at the
reform of primary education has both advantages and drawbacks. The
main advantage would be the creation of a vast complex of laws,
regulations, constructions and teaching capacities at every grade. Yet -
the very magnitude of this complex represents an obstacle. IL -vy shall
we alter solidly established traditions? How shall we change states of
mind, professional and career interests? How shall we, for example,
reconciles the demands of training and the need for selection? These are
questions among others to which there is no ready answer nor quick
solutioni We are nevertheless faced henceforward with a crisis in
education which, despite its negative aspects, allows a clear view of a
number of avenues along which exploratory action can be taken with a
view to; founding the new order.
'Personalisation of teaching. If education has meaning, it must enable
every indiVidual to develop in accordance with his own nature and as a
function of his own leanings and capacities, not in terms of a ready-
made model only suited to one particular type of subject, namely the
`gifted' pupil who learns easily and does not question the school order.
Accent on method. Accepting that all knowledge is of a relative
character, we are led to concentrate attention, within the educational
process, on the acquisition of the tools of knowledge and expression:
language, spoken and written, mathematics; the media of artistic
expression such as drawing, music, singing, dancing, and physical
training..

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8.1
 The function of the school is, through gystematic training, 'teaching
to learn', by developing the capacities of reflection, of organising one's
work, of establishing a relationship between analysis and synthesis, and
by encouraging the habit of dialogue and of team-work.
From a methodological angle there should also be considered the
prospect of establishing closer links between various disciplines with a
view to harnesting together the scientific and the literary approaches.
/Links with daily existence. The task of education is to prepare
tomorrow's adult to face the obligations and responsibilities of life, to
accept change and-all forms of intellectual and cultural adventure, and
to adapt himself to rapid evolution in mores and doctrines. This
implies the folloWing objectives among others:
Inclusion of the values which appertain to labour among the themes
of culture in modern life.
Some initiation into the workings of the law and of the economy, by
way of explanation and introduction to a rational conception of
structures and relations.
Initiation in the use of the major media of dissemination of
knowledge and entertainment (film, radio, television).
Constant attention to reading (learning the language of poetry and
of philosophy, the problem of fast reading, etc.).
Initiation into the art of living.
Discovery and assimilation of the values of human partnership in all
its aspects (duologue, sexuality, complementing one another,
etc.).

Literacy and lifelong education

Literacy teaching provides one of the best illustrations of the soundness
of the concept of lifelong education,This statement requires
interpretation, which is fully supported by the facts. Experience shows
that where a literacy effort has succeeded, it has done so through
being considered as a continuing factor in a global framework.
We shall not set out again here the principles of functional literacy
teaching. It will be sufficient to recall that the system rests upon a close
analysis of the inadequacies and failures of traditional types of literacy
. campaigns. In the past, and very often still today, the most frequent
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82
 occurrence has been for illiterate adults to be taught the rudiments of
reading, writing and arithmetic without regard to the social and
economic circumstances of their lives and with no thought for the
conseqUences and future use of the knowledge they have acquired,.
given the personality of each adult taken by himself. Such teaching was
often based upon an abstract conception of man cut off from hisdeep
. motivations and reduced to a so-called cultural 'dimension' and to
arbitrary notions of culture, justice and equality.
With functional literacy solid progress has Leen made towards
meeting man in his concrete'reality. [Link] of the educational
process now becomes the individual in his dimension as a producer, and
this marks a tremendous step forward in the .theory and practice of
education as applied to literacy work. In the first place it implies an
acknowledgement of the high priority value of work in any modern and
realistic conception of culture. Work is thus recognised as one of the
essential factors through which the world attains .a human dimension.
An adultacquiring functional literacy is one called to take an active
part in the transformation of the structures and lii;ing conditions of the
world in which he has his place in terms of the general programmes of
development,of society and of the political objectives which are bound,
up with the building of the nation. He thus takes up a position within
the effective reality of a collective evolution which both governs and
sustains the demands of his own development as an individual.
Yet the definition and the promotion of the notion of functional
literacy involves at the same time the development of certain new
approaches and the casting aside of various, obsolete prejudices and
tenets. In contrast to what is (often maintained, literacy is not
necessarilythe first stage in the educational process. It takes its place in
a complex of actions and undertakings aimed at raising the level of
consciousness in men and at supplying them with the intellectual
equipment they will need in order to express themselves, to
communicate, to become informed with precision and to penetrate the
realms of modern science. Literac y is undoubtedly a privileged and
irreplaceable instrument. Without mastery of reading and writing the
paths that lead to study and to participation in cultural life are totally
barred.
81,
 Contrary to a widespread belief, literacy is an instrument of a
complex nature which, in relation to other means of transmitting
thoughtr feeling- for example images or speech lies at an
unusually high levelof abstractioh. The utility of this particular
medium as compared with others is not immediately apparent to those
who stand to profit from it. Only in the light of an overall conception
of adult education, resting upon an understanding of the channels of
perception, of the recognition of signs and of the assimilation of
messages, and only on the basis of a clear vision of the links aid
articulations existing between the various elements (6T the adult's
intellectual and emotional experience, willjit become possible to bring
literacy teaching into play in the educatiorial process, at the opportune
moment and, with the full impact of its significance. One cannot give
too much weight to the notion that the value of literacy, like that of
any other instrument, is only relative, and that literacy will only reach
its full meaning and utility as part of a social, economic, political and
also educational complex.
Acquiring literacy is neither solely nor basically the process of
mastering a means of communication, nor:does it imply the mere
gaining of a new mode of expression)ts true meaning is the passage
from one type of civilisation to another, or more explicitly, the passage
from an oral civilisation, with its at;companiment of traditions and
customs, to a written civilisation; with its own assortment of references,
innovations, transformations of/the bases of legality, and introductions
to rational processes of perception and reflection. It is at the same time
the passa0 from a society closed in upon itself to one which is
necessarily' open'to the world. Its consequences are very often
incalculable, in the short term and assuredly° in the,medium and
long term.,
The objectives and componenti oflifelong education accordingly
have solid roots in all actions relate,ello a 'functional view of literacy
teaching, and this conclusion is highly. favourable to the theses
lifelong education. Put in another way, if literacy is to fulfil its role
fully and efficiently, it appears ineitable that it will build up even
closer bonds and relations with the theory and practice of lifelong
education as applied to adults/
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31
Short- and long-term objectives
In the long term it is more and more [Link] that lifelong
education presupposes a recasting of the totality of the educational
syste.i along lines of thought and action of which an outline has been
given in the preceding chapters. This task will occupy much time, the
final objective being a more efficient and more open society in which
man, his dimensions and aspirations, will receive greater respect.
It is, however, impossible to wait until all the preconditions for such
a society are present before taking action, bearing in mind that the
realisation of all these pre-conditions at the same moment is most
unlikely.
Now is the time therefore for taking a variety of measures meeting
immediate needs and tending to favour the evolution of the system in
the direction of structures assuring lifelong education.
In the short term a rationa education policy might set itself the
following objectives.

Development of adult education

1. This meets the Educational needs which emerge from the list of
challenges enumerated in the first chapter.
2. Failing an elaborate network of structures for adult education, no
serious reform of school educatioli is possible, because of the
need to supply the pupils with learning of an encyclopaedic-
nature.
3. Adult education provides a unique laboratory for finalising the
structures and methods of a type of education not subject to
traditional patterns.
4. To the extent that it transforms the mentality and behaviour
patterns of its subjects, adult education exerts a fundamental
influence on individuals who themelves have 'a determining voice
in the educational field, namely parents.
.5. Adult education provides the key to constructive relationships
between the generations.
Teacher training
The role of the teacher must undergo fundamental change in any
system of lifelong education. His function as conveyor of knowledge
will diminish in importance and volume, all the more as he will be able
to remit this task, to a large extent, to the technological media. Op the
other hand his role [Link] will be strengthened. It should soon be
recognised as inconceivable that a subject as precious as a child, with all
the complekities of his characteristics and hopes, should be handed over
to the mercies of an individual the teacher who is not in possession
of the competence required- for this delicate task. A child is not solely a
number on a list, a good or a bad pupil, or less gifted for arithmetic or
grammar; he is above all a human being endowed with personality. He
has his own psyche, his sociological significance, his place in a series of
contexts, his urges and his inhibitions; some roads are open to him and
others closed. Is it conceivable that an adult holding so much power
over a child should not be equipped to perceive that child, to
understand his co-ordinates, to guide rather than judge, to draw
advantage from every individual resource rather than punish every
deficiency? All this presupposes a thorough theoretical and practical.
preparation including general psychology and the study of intelligence,
as well as sociology in the broad sense of society in the mass and in the
narrow sense of group sociology. What is needed here is an irreducible
minimum of training which should be introduced forthwith in the
preparation of teachers for their task, so as to eliminate wastage and
build the foundations of lifelong education.

84
A COLLECTIVE ENTERPRISE

Research
If it is true that every life is a perpetual struggle, is it better to start
preparing the future adult from school onwards for the coming
contests, or on the contrary, at each successive stage and in the various
types of training, to stress co-operation and intercommunication? Is it
possible to create a state of equilibrium as between these conflicting
demands of personality and of fate, and if so, how and through what
channels? .

This is one of the fundamental questions which every educator must

face, whether he is concerned with curricula or with actual teaching,
for upon the answer will to a large extent depend the general direction
of instruction. But many other questions arise with equal sharpness:
What is the true equilibrium between individual and collective aims,
and in particular how should the training needs of the individual,
with all his capacities and hopes, be reconciled with the needs of
selection?
How can we equate the demand for personalisation of teaching
(taking into account all the individual traits of which the
importance has been stressed throughout this study) with the
universal features of human nature and its need for
intercommunication?
What weight should be given to the different contents of curricula
once we have rejected encyClopaedic teaching and placed the
accent on method? What are the points of reference common to
science, literature, philosophy and history that are essential to the
development of the personality in its own social, political and
historical context?
What balance should be sought between the acquiring of the needed
disciplines, respect for the external establishment and the free
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 expression of the personalit ?
Within a particular training, wh t proportions should be established
between games and study?
Are there optimum periods for apprenticeship, _generally or in
respect of certain particular disciplines such as languages,
mathematics, instrumental skill, etc.?
What laws govern the development of the personality and the stages,
of growth of intelligence, sensitiveness, sociability, and so forth?
What are the values that underlie each type of instruction and
training? -

In the educational process, what shares shaild be allotted to school

teaching, to out-of-school activities, to so-called 'parallel' schools,
-to 'the family,--to the-w-oflatibTe-t-C--.7
To what extent and in what manner should education concern itself
with prospects connected with manpower needs?
What attention should be paid to problems of employment
opportunities?
Educators know some of the answers, or at any rate find themselves
the interpreters of the 'answers supplied, explicitly or implicitly, by
each of the educational systems now in effect. Every educator, whether
he is conscious of it or not, has his own system of values and of points
of reference. But what are the foundations of these doctrines, official
or personal? .

In most cases the corpus of solutions has no other bases than

traditions, customs, an inheritance of thoughts and processes and a
purely empirical acquaintance with the problems of education. These
are no doubt valuable elements, and the value of practical experience,
together with the thinking of the craftsmen of teaching upon their own
activity,are irreplaceable. Nevertheless the magnitude of the ptoblems
involved, the complexity of the factors at work, the necessity to adapt
or to conceive new solutions, all call today for more solid foundations,
than the subjective opinions or experience of individuals can provide.
Having taken every precaution as to methods, having brought every
needed correction to the urge for system, we cannot, if we wish to
build lifelong education on sound bases, elude the necessity of
travelling beyond the realm of opinions, and of building a science.
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 To the varied experience of the teachers must be added the
incontrovertible evidence of the human sciences. In defining its
objectives, programmes and' methods, education cannot dispense with
the vital coarihutions_of_psythology_and sociology. Only the
psychologist and' professional analyst of character can throw light, for
the educator's benefit, on the circumstances and timing of the
developments of personality. Only they can provide the needed data
regarding the psychical forces at work, the mental blocks, the
difficulties of adaptation, etc.
Sociologists and political scientists will for their part highlight the
role of education in the evolution of society, both as a product and as a
factor. Who will calculate exactly the return'to be expected from
educational action, viewed both per se and in its relations with other
forms of investment? The experience of artists, poets, composers, of
men of science and of all who have found their vocation in the act of
creation, will also have to be fully drawh upon, for they can furnish
the most valuable evidence concerning the relationship between the
construction of a work, of whatever nature, and the development of the
personality.
If the desired new order is to take shape and become a reality it will
be necessary to mobilise every resource, intellectual, emotional and
practical, and all the forces that sustain the social edifice as a whole.
Experience gained in factories, fields and offices will prove as
decisive in drawing up a new educational doctrine as the wisdom of
philosophers, the inspiration of poets, and the constructions of
scientists, both theoretical and practical.
If the soundness of these reflections is admitted, it becomes less and
less thinkable that discussions, on education, involving so many aspects
of personality and affecting so many elements of the social fabric, can
henceforward be left solely to the professionals of education. This is a
collective enterprise, and all the circles involved must be associated not
only with the work of research, but with the decisions.

The educational function

There will doubtless always be, in any given society, individuals, men
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and women, whose vocation is teaching. Education will continue to
lead the way to professions, and the latter to call for specialised
training. To provide a child's education, to carry through a training
course, the [Link] master a number of techniques and possess the
necessary qualifications. Teachers, moreover, in addition to their roles
as instructors and trainers, render society the signal service of taking
charge of children and adolescents while their parents carry out their
duties, either professional or domestic.
Nevertheless the transformations which have taken place in
educational thought and practice, together with their likely evolution, .

cannot fail to have repercussions on the function of the educator.

In admitting the notion that education reaches far beyond the limits
traditionally assigned to it in particular those of teaching we must
also accept that any person who, at a given moment and in given
circumstances, has responsibilities for instruction and training, is an
educator. This is clearly the position of the teacher, but it is also that
of the physician, the priest, the foreman, the engineer, the agricultural
demonstrator and the man responsible for a political, trade-union or
co-operative structure. Parents are educitors by priority and will
increasingly remain so, and among others who hold this kind of
responsibility, even if they are not always conscious of the fact, we
must clearly include the managers and prime movers of the mass
information media who, throug.t radio, press, television and the screen,
contribute powerfully to the making and moulding of minds, hearts
and tastes.
All these categories and figures of modern societies constitute a great
army of educators and swell the training resources available' to these
societies. But this does not mean that they are automatically qualified
to exercise their responsibilities in an adequate manner. There are
countless ignorant and cluinsy parents who retard their children's
development. There are many physicians who regard a sick person as a
medical case rather than as an individual who requires advice and
guidance. There are numerous programme directors who adopt the
lowest denominator within their public, which they flatter by appealing
to its passions and self-interest and by following the paths of facility.
The marshalling and mobilisation of these many resources in the
\
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 interests of the educational development of individuals and societies
accordingly raise problems both of conscience and of competence the
word 'conscience' being here taken in its double significance as both
intellectual acceptance or awareness of a state of fact, the educational
process, and as moral acceptance or acknowledgement of responsibility
with all the consequences implied ia diff&ent forms of action. But
competence is also a necess ': there must be a clear view of the
,objectives to be reached, of ways of conveying messages, of what is
good and what is bad, useful or harmful to men's natures. Should we
not deduce from all this that an aptitude to educate should
henceforward form part of the training of every individual, if only
because every individual, as a general rule, will become a domestic
partner and will have children to bring up? More specifically, it would
seem clear that educational theory and practice have now become an
integral part of the training of any individual belonging to a modern
society whose occupation endows him with influence, authority or
responsibility towards others.
Within the ambit of this collective enterprise it is highly desirable
that all these participants in educational action, whether professional.

teachers or others, should remain in permanent communication and

consultation, guiding one another and benefiting fiom each other's
specific experience and contributions. Only on such terms can the
structures of an authentic and vigorous form of lifelong education
progressively take shape.

Towards an educational society

The logic of the development of lifelong education presupposes a
transformation of the structures of society in a direction favourable to
the growth of the personality. This fundamental aspect of the problem
has already been touched upon in various parts of this study, in
particular in the chapter dealing with the strategy of lifelong education.
But at this point, when the collective character of the enterprise is
being highlighted, together with the necessary alliances, we cannot lay
sufficient stress on the predominant role of the politician and the
administrator. The introduction of lifelong education is an essentially
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political undertaking, to the extent that the totality of the structures
of the polis are involved in its realisation.
CONCLUSIONS

Lifelong education is still at the conceptual stage. As with other

principles such as freedom, justice and equality, it will doubtlesis retain
indefinitely that certain distance in relation to concrete achievements .

which is in the nature of concepts. If, however, the distance is too

great, as is frequently the case for the other concepts just listed,
scepticism will be aroused. The accusations of vagueness, formlessness
a ndimprecision which are often aimed at this concept are not devoid of
reason. If a notion is to emerge from limbo and to appear in its true
light, it is essential that it should be reflected in facts and actions from
which it can draw strength. For as long as analyses of lifelong education
are not backed by a series of references to situations, structures,
programmes, in brief, to all that is so aptly called the 'concrete', so long
will it be difficult to win mass support for theses of which the
foundations have so far been largely theoretical.
There is no gainsaying that lifelong education does not yet exist
anywhere in the fullness of its aims. Certain forces are undoubtedly at
work, and the world has not waited for theorists to express their views,
or for committees to make recommendations, before entering upon the
course of a form of education adapted to the becoming of things and
beings. The elements with the aid of which the conceptual framework
of the new education is taking shape are found in the solutions that
individuals and groups apply, day by day and year by year, to new
situations. Lifelong education has become not only desirable but
possible only because new avenues have opened up. If, for example:we
did not have the benefit of the'appreciable contribution made by adult
education, and more generally by out-of-school methods of training, if
countries had not Halt up extensive networks of communication
through radio and television, and if the means of universal instruction
were not at hand, then our thoughts concerning lifelong education
would be without meaning and would doubtless not even have begun to
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take shape. Today, on the contrary, the enterprise lies in the realm of
the possible, and lifelong education represents from now onwards a
great hope. That hope rests upon faith in man and in his ability to
become an adult responsible for his thinking, his feelings and his
options granted always that his creative powers have not been
whittled away from the outset, either by a hostile world or by modes
of training which pay no respect to man's originality and thrust.

92
PART II
DEMONSTRATIONS AND ILLUSTRATIONS

930
AIMS LINKED WITH LIFELONG EDUCATION :

Man as he really is
The true subject of education is man in alfhis aspects, in the diversity

as he really is. /
of his situations and in the breadth of his responsibilities, in short, man'

Modern man is the victim of abstraction. Everything conspires to

divide him and break his unity, e.g. ie division of society into classes;
fragmented work- in which the in'di 'dual can perceive neither the
structures nor the overall goal of roduction and cannot manage to
define his place in it; the contras between manual and intellectual
work and the two types of peo e this breeds; the: conflict of ideOlogies
and the crumbling of collectiv myths; and the dichotomy between
body and m and between aterial and spiritual values.
Man is lost Ast a mul tude of images of himself and a multitude
of incoherent and contradictory situations, trends and definitions.
'Education as it is plane and as it actually functions, particularly in
the form of teaching, c ntributes greatly to this dissociation of the
parts of the personality/. One aspect of the person has been arbitrarily
isolated for the needs/of instruction, i.e. the intellectual aspect in its
cognitive form, and/he other aspects have been forgotten or neglected
and either shrink td an embryonic state or develop in a disordered
fashion and threaten the balance of the personality.
To meet examination needs, a further stage has been added to the
initial abstradtion. This stage does not accept the intellect as it really
is, with its originality and its own powers but compares its performance
with that of others in a continuous process of awarding marks. There is
a massive substitution of the quantitative for the qualitative. The child
becomes the subject of assessments and hence his development is
arrested and [Link] a limited and' arbitrary vision.
The ciompetition established in this environment from earliest
childhod also helps to narrow -the field of human experience. The
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 exchange, dialogue, communication and mutual enrichment which are
indispensable to every, man if he is to fulfil himself are reduced to their
simplest expression.
The extension of educational experience, even to the detriment of
other forms of experience, such as work, games or sentimental
communication, keeps a young person in an artificial situation at a time
when he is already in possession of his powers of feeling and acting.
Under these conditions, it is not surprising that incurable traumatisms
. often result, and it is found that an adolescent educated in this way
frequently has great difficulty in coming to terms,with the world and
establishing correct and constructive relationships with other people.
Some essential parts of his being are either atrophied or temporarily
paralysed to such an extent that he is scarcely civilised.
It is in order to fight against such a system and to remedy the
destructive effects of modern civilisation that the foundations of a new
education are being laid. The target is man as he really is and his actual
dimensions. The characteristics of such a man may be seen as a series of
pairs of determinations, some of which are complementary and others
Contradictory.
The aim of educatioi; is to cater for every aspect and dimension of
the individual as a physical, intellectual, emotional, sexual, social and
spiritual being. None of these components can or oughfto be isolated
and each in turn supports the others.
This individual is considered in two contexts: as an, independent
individual and in relationship with others and with society in general.
He is atonce isolated and involved.
He is a man given to responsibility, Participation and exchange and
not to passivity and competition.
He belongs alike to the particular and to the universal to the
particular in so far as he feels himself to be a member of society, acting
.as such and sharing the feelings, traditions and ways of life of a
community, class or country; and to the universal in so far as he is able
to perceive the common feature of mankind in the infinite diversity of
human expression, has a sense of fellowship with other men, races and
peoples and acquires a world outlook.
He is both a specialist, and skilled in a number of fields, but he uses
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his specialist know!edge to increase his understanding of other spheres
of thought and activity.
He remains,resolutely attached to his own state of immaturity and
refuses to accept readymade patterns of adult life.
He also rejects the various forms of rigidity and is for continual
change and renewal.
He becomes, more and more, the subject of his own education.
He establishes a constructive and living relationship with time, which
Ir regards not as an enemy but as an ally, and with his own lifespan.
He is the incarnation of life and movement and not of stability,
stagnation and nostalgia.

Adaptability
The mind perceives change only when it is swift, a fact thaeveryone
can verify when watching a film showing plant growth. Whereas in
normal experience transformations are not perceptible, in the film
through the artificial shortening of the growth stages the develop-
ment of the plant is seen as if it were the body of an animal in motion.
This is precisely the way in which historians work. They eliminate
an infinite number of details and circumstances and knit together
moments which, in fact, are separated by what are sometimes
considerable temporal distances. This is how they present the course
of a life-hatory, the events of a day and the advent of [Link],
and how they retrace the evolution of a civilisation.
In the existence of the great, mass of human beings, changes were,
for a long time, barely perceptible and difficult to grasp. They were too
slow. An individual's journey through life proceeded, by and large, in
the physical, intellectual and spiritual surroundings of his childhood
and it required a crisis of major intensity and magnitude, such as a war
or revolution, to project the human being into a, different universe to
which he must either adapt himself or run the risk of either
disappearing or experiencing anguish and becoming unbalanced.
This later situation, which has been the exception over the
centuries, is now becoming the rule for a large proportion of mankind.
The volume of changes occurring within the space of a generation and
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the gathering momentum of transformations in the world have been
described on many occasions. There is a whole literature on the
subject. It is now well established that from decade to decade, and
sometimes even from year to year; individuals in an increasing number
of societies are faced with changes of great magnitude affecting the
various sectors of their life and involving the different aspects of their
personality. In many disciplines, particularly in the sciences, knowledge
hardly ever reaches a stable state. We see a growing flood of discoveries
and new theories whose effect is to relegate the most firmly entrenched
notions to the past. Relationships between the generations, between
children and parenti, between men and women, are also in a continuous
state of upheaval. The very notion of 'adult' is called in question today.
The same applies to the place and role of authority and the traditional
dominant-dominated relationship. Customs, ideas and ideologies ebb
and flow incessantly. One of the factors which used to make for
stability of conditions and ways of life one's profession is subject
to constant fluctuations. Technological progress and changes are such
that countless workers are now experiencing the need for re-training
and must even expect to change their profession several times during
their working life. The result is that change is now not only perceived
by everyone in its practical implications, but is regarded as one of the
basic experiences of the majority of human beings.
There are many reasons why men are repelled by this movement
that draws us inexorably in its wake. They are for the most part of an
affective kind. For we have to break with our habits. People naturally
cling to what they know and are associated with. They are reassured
by familiar surroundings and experience of change often brings distress,
regret or nostalgia. On the intellectual plane, they tend to see the
relative and transitory as absolute and permanent, in terms both of
knowledge and of belief.
This being so, it is not surprising that a growing number of people
live today in a state of anguish. From the days of their childhood,
family life and school, they have been accustomed to finding security
and stability in the acquistion of knowledge firmly established in
tradition and supported by the authority of their parents and of their
intellectual and spiritual teachers. The future did not seem threatening
98.
in so far as it was basically foreshadowed by the experience of their
elders and the paths of their progress were traced for them in advance.
Suddenly they have found themselves in an alien, unfriendly world in
which .they do not recognise themselves.
If modern man is to find release from his anguish and the future is
to lose its threatening aspect for him, there must be radical transforma-.
tions and changes in minds and attitudes with regard to life. A new
conception of time must be created. Instead of regarding time -as a
negative factor, as man's enemy, always militating against him, it should
be viewed as something positive, bringing human experience discoveries
and progress. On this does love of life, amor fati, depend; and it
naturally implies acceptance of risk and taste for adventure of all kinds.
Education is all-powerful in fostering this state of mind and attitude.
It is the role of education to guide man's thoughts towards the past or
towards the future, towards a state of rigidity or flux, towards the
discovery of true security by becoming part of the movement.
There is no better general preparation for this readiness to accept
innovation' than the development of the scientific approach which, as
we have said. is one of the basic components of modern humanism.
Science is perception of the world, of a world subject to forces which
sweep it along in 'S continual upheaval of structures and forms.
Development of creativity works along the same lines. There can be.,
no creative activity by an individual or by a society 'unless obsolescence
and renewal are accepted and welcomed as experience of life in action.
However, education for active acceptance of change includes an
additional, specific element which is the historical approach. The new
prominence given to the place and role of time in the various sectors of
human thought and activity is one of the basic signsOf progress of the
modern mind and this is how it differs fundamentally from the classical
attitude which inclines towards sameness and permanence. Historical
thought has developed over the past century and a half to the extent
that all knowledge, whether in the sphere of biology, art, ideas, or even
of mental mechanisms, is now placed within the context of a given
length of time. But this approach has not, up to now, found its way
into education.
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 Time, as curricula are arranged at present, is considered only in the
form of a specific subject dealing with the succession of periods in the
life of peoples, and particularly of the privileged nation to which the
pupils belong. Often the thread is missing that of civilisation, which
takes the work of men into account just as much as the action of
succeeding dynasties and military conquests:It seems 3dtal, however, in ,
ensuring preparation for change, that all instruction should be given
within the historical perspective. Whether this concerns science,
literature, art,,,or the various language disciplines, each of these
individual themes cannot assume its true significance or make its full
educational impact unless it is presented and explained within the
context of its development and through the various phases of its
evolution. It is the mind imaction at once destructive and creative
that has to be illustrated and made intelligible in all the breadth and .

diversity of its manifestations.

Adaptability to change is conceivable only in and through the most
general education possible. It is the fate of modern man to have to face
constant manifold innovations. This applies to the intellectual, spiritual
and affective aspects of his world, as it does to the professional aspects.
This being so, we are obviously doing him a disservice in providing him
prematurely with too specialised a training.
Such training, limited in its aims, may well hinder modern man's
acquisition of a true and broad understanding of this shifting world and
his integration in the political, social and professional frameworks in
which he is to develop. What is important, then, in order to provide him
with the necessary flexibility and versatility, is not to make him absorb
ready-made knowledge but to equip him intellectually and spiritually
for research and discovery. Adaptability is thus closely linked, with the
aims of scientific reasoning, creativity and social commitment which
make up the essential subitratum for the well-balanced development of
every personality.

Education for happiness

Is the aim of education to make men happy? It is not, if we consider
happiness as an intrinsic reality, as something outside ourselves which
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we may obtain or miss; it is, if we visualise happiness as a mode of
being. There is a happy and an unhappy way of feeling settled in the
world', of perceiving it, of establishing one's relatfouship v :th time and
of communicating with other people.
Education does not enter into the picture if happiness or
unhappiness is made to depend on the possession or lack of an object,
whether it be a material asset such as a car, a toy, wealth, etc., or a
moral asset such as possession of someone loved or public esteem.
Education is powerless in this case, not only because it has no part to
play in such ambitions, but also because this approach to happiness, as
everyone knows by experience, in the end proves ineffective and
meaningless. Education does come into the picture, however, if happi-
ness is given its true meaning as a mode of being and a way of living
one's life. Not only is a link between happiness and education then
established but one might almost say that there is no true, firmly
rooted and abiding happiness save that derived from the educational
process. To quote Spinoza: `Joy is man's transition from a lesser to a
greater state of perfection; sorrow is man's transition from a greater to
a lesser state of perfection.' If we translate joy by happiness we have
theansWer: happiness islinked with the exercise and feeling of power.
Let us be quite clear by power is meant true power, not the
deceptiiie, alienating and dangerous power of controlling other people,
but the power which really deserves the name, that of self-control. This
kind of happiness is accessible to any man and is within everyone's
reach, if certain conditidns are fulfilled. Everyone is capable of effort,
that moment in a man's existence which shows that he is 'in control'.
Everyone-is capable of making this effort to control himself on the
countless occasions when lucidity must triumph over ilhistn,
knowledge over ignorance, hope over despair and discodrIgement,
confidence in others over mistrust and suspicion, love and under-
standing over hatred and misanthropy, and availability and trans-
parency over refusal and opacity. These are the elements and moments
.of 'happiness', like those when a man states his own feelings in
opposition to the sheep-like herd, counters ready-made conceptions
with his personal and original view of the world, and prefers the
judgement which he has formed on the basis of knowledgeor reflet, lot
to vague, fluctuating opinions.
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 Reaching this state of power is not just a natural process. Left to
himself, and if he be lucky, a man may well arrive at a state of vegeta-
tive beatitude which, for many, passes for happiness and even assumes
some of its forms. Without mentioning the superficiality and vanity of
what are known as 'pleasures', is it not nonetheless obvious that this
self-possession on which a 'happy' lot depends, can be acquired only by
work? Work means study, discipline and the discovery and use of the
gifts and abilities enabling us to understand and communicate with
others, and to find answers to the questions with which life, the world
and the vicissitudes of the heart and mind are constantly facing us, even
when we keep them on the confines of our consciousness. The pursuit
of happiness then converges with the aims of education, and the paths
leading to a happy existence are those followed during different phases
of the eduCational process.
In other words, happiness and education are buildings. But unlike
structures of wood and stone fixed in their relative immutability, these
are buildings made of flesh and mind, expressions and instruments of
life, and, like life..malleable and changing. The work of building up a
happy existence through education has neither limit nor end. It is a
long preparation and, as the well-known examples of artists and
scholars clearly show us, it is only through a series of stages, of with-
drawals and advances, of successes and failures seen in perspective and
judged, and of relative or final victories, that a man attains to the full
originality of his point of view and to freshness of outlook and feeling.
Furthermore, each part of this construction itself has to be invented
and imagined. An idea does not exist like an object, nor does a feeling
or a relationship. If the idea, feeling or relationship is not built up and
established as a triumph over doubt, a victory .over hesitation or a
,winning battle against obscurity, not to say the affirmation of strength
over weakness, it cannot exist and vanishes like a cloud. This intimate
bond which lifelong education maintains with the substance of a human,
being and with his development is more compelling than the historical,
sociological and economic reasons which make lifelong education a
necessity. .A state of this kind has nothing idyllic about [Link] is a
situation in which there is a place for tragedy. No one can hope to
know happiness in his life unless he resigns himself to being constantly
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 challenged, unless he is ready to meet with changes, separations and
disappearances and unless he faces up resolutely to the unavoidable
need to die unto himself several times in the [Link] his life. Whereas
the patterns of family and school education have hitherto led to the
construction of an untrue, frail and fixed image of happiness resting on
an illusion of security, the aim of education is to teach individuals
resolutely to accept risk, alteration and insecurity and to ally them-
selves with time, the destroyer of all things.
This individual, with a calling and capacity for happiness, is not the
isolated individual of our atomised (in both senses *of the word)
societies but is linked to other's, in communication with the structures
and forces of a just society. This means that ii our societies, which are
based on inequality and, in thousands of ways, hinder communion and
communication, the building of a 'happy' life as-suggested here
- encounters many difficulties and obstacles. It is therefore perhaps not
exaggeration to say that one of the fundamental justifications for the
struggles being carried on throughout the t _id for [Link], liberty
and fraternity is that their aim is to create political and legal situations,
in which everyone, for his own sake and for that of others, may be able
to carry on this educational venture which is the essence and the
expression of a happy life.

Education for the improvement of the quality of life

The aims of education also come face to face with the components of
what is today called the quality of life. This is a vague idea indeed.
What is there which does not enter into the quality of life? What helps
to make life a reality full of virtues or charms, worthy to be lived with
enthusiasm and pleasure or, on the contrary, makes it a scowling
monster imposing its presence and domination through the powers of
routine and resignation? Everything comes into play, the air we
breathe, be it pure or contaminated, the water we drink, be it healthy
or polluted, and the landscape around us, be it pleasant, or dismal; a
hostile environment which causes distress or a friendly environment
where'a man feels supported, encouraged and loved. Do working
conditions, transport and housing come. into' the quality of life? Yes, of
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course they do if we hold to a broad and all-embracing view of the
qualitative aspect of life. No, they do not, will say others who fear that
this notion will result in all the inhabitants of the earth being lumped
together, equally victims of physical and moral corruption, whether
they be rick or poor, black, yellow or white. For upholders of this
view, and particularly for political and trade union militants, it is a
concept which is either ineffectual or dangerous, in so far as it is liable
to make differences of status and position be forgotten and discourage
the mass of ordinary people from carrying on the fight for their class
interests as well as for their pay claims and for equality of opportunity.
It is nevertheless true that we have to face the problems of the
environment, pollution, etc., that no political consideration can detach
us from them, and that education plays an important, not to say
conclusive (ale among those factors which influence the quality of life.
First of all, education may be destructive n character. It may be a
source of disturbance and a kill-joy. Many men and women who are ill
at ease in this world and suffer from psychological or emotional
traumatisms, who do not manage to establish satisfactory relationships
with other people on the basis of equality and exchange and who have
an unhappy and misanthropic outlook, impose it on those around them
and use it as an instrument of moral torture, owe their unhappiness in
life to the education which they received. A disunited or overbearing
family and dictatorial, unimaginative school are examples of destructive
environments and harmful things which require to be changed
radically.
On the other hand, everything which has been said elsewhere in this
work on the aims of educatii in relation to individual and collective
aims in life applies to the qualitative objectives of education. To take
but one example, the fight against noise is not only a question of
legislation and administrative decrees. If a person on a moped is not to
wake up 500,000 town-dwellers in the middle of the night by making
his machine backfire, he must be brought up to respect other people,
to take their feelings into consideration and to follow the principles
and rules of democratic life. The same applies to those who force the
noise of their transistor radios or the din of their television sets on
others, finding iii this, moreover, a cure for and a drug to help them
104
fight the ravages of a boredom whose source is to be found in the
manifOld physicaliintellectual, moral and aesthetic 'illiteracies' from
which they suffer.
However important the place of education in this field, its limits-
must be perceived. If the fish we eat is impregnated with mercury; if
radioactive dust floats in the air, if the rivers are lifeless and if the
forest trees are felled, it is not hecause the polluters are ignorant of the
consequences of what they are doing or even that they are insensitive;
it is because the law of economic interests or the requirements of power
politics have overridden all other considerations.

Education for peace and international understanding

If it be true that peace is Society's greatest good, that the very survival
Of the human species is threatened by conflicts which are liable to make
whole regiOns of the earth, if not the entire globe uninhabitable, we are
naturally led to ask how far it is the aim of education to prepare meri
to reject war and seek peace. This is undoubtedly one of the most
difficult and delicate questions to answer. If education can contribute
to the relaxing of tension between peoples, we can but conclude that
to make individuals peace-loving is the primary purpose of every form
of education.
However, such a proposition rims counter to the theory of war. Is
war really born in the minds of n, as an illustrious statesman and
-philosopher proclaimed justrafter e Second World War?
It does not seem to be quite simple. If we say 'in the minds of
men', we have to specify which en. Certainly not in the minds of the
fighting men in a national war, w ave usually never met the
individuals at whom they take aim and have no feelings about them
other than those inspired by political pressures and the unleashing of
group passions. Men who today are enemies to be hated and destroyed
will be regarded as friends or brothers tomorrow if the wind turns and
the colour of their flag changes. If education comes in at this stage, it
does not avert conflict unless it stirs pelyle to disobedience and revolt.
All it can do is to banish base or futile feelings to kill or wound a
man is no reason for hating, despising or humiliating hiM.
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 So it is at the level of..the decision-makers that mental attitudes can-
come into the pieture: When a council of ministers decides to negotiate
and tq keep on negoljating rather than use force, why does it do so?
Thelain consideration is assuredly the respective._ strength of the
opposing parties. What are our chances? Flow many divisions can we
muster? What are our stocks of munitions? Can we rely on our allies?
Education is not alien to the development of such reasoning. It helps
the leaders to make correct and precise calculations and not to deceive
themselves regarding .objectives and means and the relationship between
them. It helps also to inspireinthem those human feelings and
humanitarian considerations, which are never completely lacking in
people of this kind.
This brings us to a general problem of civilisation, of which
observance of the law of nations, to take only this essential aspect, is a
part. It is a well known fact, for example, that in eighteenth-century
Europe, conflicts between monarchs were waged in a legalistic atmos-
phere reflecting the ethics of Enlightenment, which precluded the idea
of exterminating the enemy an idea which was enthusiastically taken
up by the national and social entities which emerged from the revolu-
tions of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries., From the Standpoint
of war and peace, this may be regarded as a regression, a return to the
barbarities and fanaticism of earlier times, even if, in other respects, a
more optimistic view may be taken.
The way in which conflicts bet,ween peoples are triggered off, how
they are carried on and how they are settled therefore depend quite
clearly on the general level of ethics, on thenature of ideas and mental
attitudes. Here education comes into its own. It doesso indirectly,
although its influence is,very powerful.
At this level, warlike feelings are rooted in aggressiveness, the
negatibn of others and lack of imagination. Everything in education
which helps individuals to live at peace with themselves, to be what
they claim to be, to come to terms with the diverse aspects of their
Persohaiities, to fit into the processes of exchange and participation,
and to,e,;cape frOm the unhappiness of isolation and solitude, has a
pacifyin&effect. Hostility to others, the desire and the will to destroy,
are closely related to frustration, individual and social failure, resent-
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1 0'I
 ment and various inferiority complexes. In the exaltation of national
sentiment persons suffering from 'a feeling of inferiority find an
opportunity-of-boosting their self-esteem at little cost, especially as
they can rest on the support of their fellow citizens and have a clear
conscience in the knowledge of their rightness and superiority over
foreigners.
Inculcating a spirit of peace in individuals is therefore bound up
with all the other ultimate ends of education, whether intellectual,
affective or social. If this spirit does not exist at all times and at all
stages of education, it is like a tree without roots and it will not with-
stand the slightest gust of wind. Special importance, however, should
be attached to the development of a democratic spirit and its inter-
national aspects. In the complicated, intricate game of politics and
diplomacy, the attitudes of mind of the peoples concerned cannot
fail to carry weight and wield influenceWhen the authorities have to
do with majorities of 'adult' citizens or active minorities, they cannot
use those they govern for their belligerent purposes ivitrthe same ease
as when they are dealing with, a malleable; ill-informed people, who
are misled concerning their real interests. It even happens that
realisation of the injustice and absurdity of a policy changes the course
of events and imposes peace generally at the cost of a :evolution.
It might be mentioned that educationatactivities directed towards
development are also of overriding importance, if it is true that
disparities itrincomes and living conditions engender tensions which in
themselves imperil peace.
Does this mean that peace shoi'ld not be taught as a separate
subject? In the light of what has been said above as to the indivisibility
of the spirit of peace, it would seem that the psychological and moral
causes of aggressiveness towards foreigners should be fought in the
context of each subject. There is a way of teaching hiqory, geography
and ilosophy which fosters a belligerent attitude-istismuch as it
blocks understanding. Everything which helps us to see foreigners not
as an abstract entity, the enemy, but as a multitude of self-determining
human beings with their joys and sorrows and their problems, every-
thing which enables us to discern what is common to mankind in the
, various forms of expression, is conducive to the arousing of peaceful
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inclinations. When this view is taken, the concern for truth and know-
ledge eoincides with the most patent and real interests of a civilisation
beneficial tom kind.

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6

CONTENT AND METHODS

Until recently, the educator possessed a singularly limited number of

methodological tools oral exposition, repetition, exercises, lessons,
with, as powerful adjuncts, punishmeht and reward. Limited though it
was, this stock-in-trade suffices in so far as the result sought was the
transmission of knowledge which was itself limited in nature and, in
composition and did not entail overstepping the boundaries of a school
or university curriculum. Methods rested on a set of assumptions
and comparatively arbitrarychOices, some deliberate and some not. The
first assumption was the all-powerfulness of words (particularly the
teacher's words) when it came to moulding the mind and enriching the
fund of knowledge of the school pupil, the student or anyone else in
process of learning. The second assumption was that all minds subjected
to the influence of education were substantially alike:that reason was
the same everywhere and in everyone, the only difference being one of
degree: some are more gifted than others; some are keen on their work,
othc_s are lackadaisical or refractory.
'Du system was based, too, on acceptance of failure. If, despite the
teacher's efforts and the alternation of punishment and reward, some
lagged behind and did not manage or only partly managed to
assimilate the substance of what was taught, they were automatically
classed as bad pupils, not gifted lazy or uncoRscientious.
Our age is witnessing a profound change in this conception of
education whether in the narrow or in the broader sense. In the
content-method relationship, which is central to educational theory
and practice, the emphasis, which used to be placed on content, is
gradually shifting towards method. There are many reasons for this, and
they are bf-coniing powerful enough to overcome the resistance and
inertia which are particularly rife in educational circles.
With regard to method, the first factor in innovation was the
progress of educational thought from within. Despite the impermeabi.
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1
lity of teaching practice, turned in on itself for centuries, it was
impossible for the conquests of psychology and sociology to remain
completely external to it. The studies of Freud, Piaget and their faith-
ful or not so faithful disciples, the research carried out by Dewey
or Rogers and their followers in the United States and that carried out
by Pavlov's school finally exerted an influence on the processes
employed in education and the concepts governing it. Unless an
educator is particularly resistant to information or hostile to change, he
can no longer ignore .the complexity of "human beings or the factors
involved in the development of the personality; some of these are
intellectual but the majority have their origins and their basis in
biology, the emotions and social instincts. The diversity of natures,
temperaments and vocations has been brought fully to light, in
particular as a result of the work done by the various schools of
characterology. The moral attitude is also losing ground as understand-
ing grows.
Here we can also see the effect of an advance made by civilisation,
which is, incidentally, somewhat paradoxical. While regression is to
be observed throughout the world in regard to the respect due to an
adult, to his rights and his person, at the same time the child has
become the subject of increased consideration. This is in striking
contrast with the morality and ideas prevalent only a century ago, as
borne out by documents, stories and chronicles. Children are tending to
be regarded as precious beings who cannot be treated lightly and whom
we must avoid damaging psychologically. Nor is economic thought alien
to the educational movement: The traditional system, perfectly adapted
to singling Out the gifted pupils has proved to be ruthlessly wasteful in
terms of forces and energy.
In some countries at least, practical experience of out-of-school
education, and particularly of adult education, has produced new ideas
and relationships which have also penetrated education in general. It
was in this branch of activities that the methods of group work were
evolved and that the group leader gradually superseded the traditional
teacher figure. .

Finally the various movements which have occurred, first in

university circles, then in secondary schools, the resistance, the revolts
110
and, generally speaking, the challenging of educational methods, have
done much to upset. the traditional order.

A new methodological approach

Under these various influences and pressures the principles of a nevi'
methodology of education are gradually being evolved:

From the curriculum to the learning situation

The first principle of this new educational creed is the importance
attached to the substratum of education the group or the individual,
'young or not so young in a learning situation. In relation to the pupil
or the student, the curriculum tends to take on secondary, or in any
case relative, importance. No doubt there is still knowledge to convey
and skills to be acquired or rather mastered. But the essential aim of
any aspect of education, whether study, exercise or practice, is a
change in the human being as a whole. It is the human being who in
a sense becomes the content of his own educacion. It is this content,
this 'raw material' which, through education, takes shape and acquires
the skills and competence which were only virtual in the individual
before.
One consequence of this emphasis is that theprincipal agent of
education is no longer the master or mistress, the teacher, the
instructor. It is the individual in the process of education. It is he who
develops, it is he who transforms himself, it is he who actualises his
own potentiality by a process which is peculiar to him and for which
there is no substitute.
Self-education is therefore the main object of training.
Self-education has a pathetic history. It has produced more sorrow
than joy, more failures than successes. Until now the self-taught were
those members of the population who set out in quest of knowledge
and skills without having received the formal education by which those
more privileged had benefited. Deprived of references and the
traditional intellectual tools, they ventured away from the beaten
tracks, to explore some corner of the literary, philosophical and/or
scientific universe. The more gifted succeeded in their venture and
111
 even made-discoveries worthy of notice, but these were often paid for
very dearly. Many did-not find what they were seeking, either because
they had reached blind alleys or [Link] the magnitude and intensity
of the effort required discouraged them. But it is a diametrically
different form of self-education with which we are concerned here. It
is now a question of equipping everyone, at school or university,
wherever or whenever the educational process is involved, with the
- elements and tools which will enable him or her to continue the quest
for knowledge throughout life and so always to move forward.

Motivation and functional nature

In the light of the foregoing, motivation, which is frequently referred
to in writings or statements on education, assumes its full significance.
In the old system, inner motivation was not essential. As a matter of
fact, it was only present in a minority, made up of those who by
temperament, heredity or social and cultural pressure were naturally
disposed to make the kind of effort asked of them. For the majority,
the impetus usually came from the person directing operations, the
teacher. The system of marks, rewards and punishments, praise and
reprimands, was there to sustain wavering efforts of pupils. Only
with the help of these traditional stimulants did they finally battle
through to the end of their studies, culminating in an examination
which declared them worthy or unworthy of crossing the threshold
of the adult world. It was in the main a blind effort whose significance
was not clearly apparent. After all, was it not the lot of childhood to be
subject to external laws and to learn the uses of freedom and independ-
ence through protracted experience of subjection? It is not surprising
under the circumstances that for most 'pupils' education remained
superficial and deviant and still is so where the traditional patterns
are immutable. It is superficial in so far as the instruction received does
not penetrate below the surface of the mind, all the rest being defended
by the combined effeets of indifference and resistance (active or passive
_according to the temperament). There is no other reason for the'
illiteracy of the masses, which is most manifest in tho dislike of reading,
even when books are readily available. This education is deviant [Link]
far as it creates in indh;iduals a distrust, sometimes even a profound
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loathing, of anything resembling a cultural effort. In many minds,,,the
two concepts of culture and school are inseparable and both are equally .
disliked. . .
So eduction and within education, teaching cannot evade the
great law governing human_activity, which is interest. If studies are to
be interesting they must correspond to some desire. If learners are to be
ready to make an effort and to employ all their energies, the aim must
be clear and the result must be worth the effort.
A considerable number of factors are involved in arousing
motivation or, conversely, in blocking it. Individualisation plays its
part. What pleases and attracts one person does not suit another but
puts him off. Of course there is a limit to the individual approach and
no education is possible if there is too much dividing up. However, no
educator can ignore or neglect the importance of personal inclinations
and tastes, and of each one's individual pace. The two vital moments
are at the beginning and the end of the different operations. In the
beginning, it is the attention-winning phase, preparation for work; at
the end, it is the clear view of the goal to be reached, bound' up with
the main aims of individual and social life: pleasure, play, wealth,
prestige, fidelity, group constructing, etc. In this connexion two
observations must be made.
(a) When it, comes to individualising the educational process, this by
no means entails a contradiction with group goals. On the contrary, an
individual effort cannot fully succeed unless it is instigated and backed
by the efforts of all, whether in a group or in a society. It is not by fa,

chance that the most powerfulincentives to study obtain in periods of

great social upheaval or the collective advance of .a class or of a whole
population.
(b) The functional side of education provides the sftongest motives
for study. That education cannot take place effectively in the vacuum
of abstraction, pursuing ends peculiar to itself, but that it must be
related to strong interests of everyday life, career, politics, improve-
ment of living conditions of the community, has been observed and
expressed in theoretical form by many educationists over the past
fifty years. One of Unesco's programmes added fresh lustre to this
principle. As everyone knows, on the basis of a critical analysis of
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experiments previously carried out in many countries, Unesco recog-
nised the decisive importance of the functional character of literacy
training for the masses. In this particular case, the functional factor is
economic and it Is bound up with the improvement of production:
However, it does not preclude other factors which strengthen and
support the economic drive, such as nation building.

Group work
The old system rested entirely on com ition. This is understandable
for two fundamental reasons. In the sence of genuine, profound
motivation resulting from the indivi St 1 relation to learning,
competition was a convenie Atset tai the adhesion of the
members of a group. And is titig that thpllesir to shine, to be the
best and to win against ti Otherifs atoo,werful in tinct in every
individual. The second r son is inherent inthe v nature of
traditional education, :whichihe emphasis is la on selection rather
than on training. Whe the object is; no longer t .select the best but to
provide equal opport lies for all, the metho cannphemain the
same. The emphasis is ow laid on the pooli of'ttiOresources, skills
and knowledge of eve a vie the:comition pursuit of
khowledge. Such is the spirit which'ipspires and governs experiments in
group work. So far the sphere, in which this approach to education has
had a chance of being applied drf.t e widest scale and with the greatest
vigour is out -of- school, education al d adult education in particular.
ElseWhere group work is practised only in sporadic and Marginal
fashion, so deeply andstrthigly rooted is the tradition of competition.
But when adult education is not content with reproducing the system
taken over from schoOl and university education and frees itself from
concern with examinations and rewards, it shows a preference for team
work. Organised and controlled discussion is the natural form assumed
by this educational process. ,
It is also this educational structure which has,, given rise to the new
educator, regarded andacting as an organiser, who inspires arid creates
situations conducive to exchange and communication, rather than as a
teacher properly speaking.
 Creativity and non-directive methods
These two terms are not synonymous, but they are so often associated
that it will be best to deal with the two concepts together.
The starting-point for considering creativity is to think about man's
estate and his calling. .

Is man made to follow, to obey, to carry out orders and to follow

the trodden ways? Can he find satisfaction or fulfil his destiny in so
doing? Or, on the contrary, does success in life lie in the assertion of
the originality of each being, in the full and free expression of the
poetic instinct? In the first instance, there is security, in the second,
adventure. On the one hand, there is the search for protection, on the
other, acceptance and love of risk, of all-forms of risk, the risk of
deceiving oneself and'keing deceived, the risk of discoveries, of being
discovered, of experiencing the great joys of life the joys of physical
or intellectual conquests, or conquests of the heart. For each of
these two alternatives there is a price to pay. To be sure, the price of
creativity is incomparably higher, since, to keep it up, all one's
capacities and qualities must be. ngaged, whereas the price of security
is the fairly modest one Of discipline.
The two instincts the instinct to seek security and the instinct to
seek adventure coexist in most people, although in different
proportions according to temperament, age and sex. So encouraging
one or the other is a question of choice. What can tilt the balance on
the side of risk, its acceptance and the willitigneii-of individuals to
incur it is realisation of the simple fact that Wall mankind -any_
security is false security. No such thing exists in nature. It is an artificial
structure, frail and constantly called "unto question. Anyone who settles
down into some sort of security, be it of money or of status, is
potentially in danger and under a perpetual threat. The, psychological
lot of this type of person and [Link] kind of civilisation which develops
according to this pattern is to b'etorever anxious and on the defenSive.
What is accepted as a general rule is seen to be even more patently true
. in this world of wars, revolutions, crises and declining values of all
kinds.
The methods of traditional education-were conceived entirely in
terms of the first alternative, that of security. Furthermore, such a
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 choice is in line with the more or less explicit wishes of parents and
what is expected by all types of authority, both temporal and spiritual.
The smoothly'constructed system of competitive examinations and
awards by means of which everyone received his due in accordance
with his merits and his conformity to the pattern, the division of
learning into curricula, the marking, the ex catheath lectures and the
transmission of codified knowledge were all means of securing the
foundations of an order resting on respect for 'hierarchies, the
untroubled conscience of the winners and the resigned acceptance of
the losers in the competition.
This is the order which is challenged by those who see in creativity
the essence of the educational process. The notion of creation is indeed
so broad and so complex that it is highly unlikely that everyone under-
stands it in the same way and has the same conception of its content.
This is a difficulty which must be accepted and faced. Nor can we over-
look the necessity of dispelling certain illusions and much confusion.
Creativity does not entail giVing a free rein to every expression of
human nature. The imitation of selected models is also a stage on the
path to invention and discovery. Nor is there any question of denying
the part played by discipline or of rejecting rules. However, the only
discipline and rules which are consistent with invention in the long run
are those which the individual works out for his own use. What Stands
out is that schooling, and education in general, as practised today,
largely stifles and paralyses creative spontaneity. Under the influence
of psychological and educational research with, in the forefront, that
of Rogers and hisleam in the United States, a series of methods of
training have been evolved, similar in conception, diverse in application.
They are eloquently termed: non - directive methods. Their common
feature is that they reduce to the minimum the direct intervention of
the teacher, but without his role being diminished. The teaches
presence is essential to the establishment of the type of relations
between members of a group which bring out psychic forces often
buried in the unconscious, either by routine or by a combination of
blocks and taboos.
_ It is too early to assess properly the results of this type of training,

which is the_experimental stage and has as yet scarcely spread

.116
beyond certain adult education circles. However; the non-directive
approach has already proved to be a most encouraging answer to some
of those who are trying to know and assert themselves. It is to be
foreseen that the spirit behind this research and some of the means
employed will permeate all educational circles hostile to the sclerosis
of the mind and the personality.
I might add that the teaching of science is also conduchie to
creativity if the teacher does not confine himself to providing data
and leading pupils along beaten tracks but opens their minds to the
scientific method, that is, to the spirit of inquiry, investigation and
verification, taking nothing for granted.

Methods and instruments

The criteria for selection
The preceding paragraphs describe a method which, in varying degrees,
can serve as a basis for putting any modern education system into
practice. The choice of means will largely depend on the fundamental
policy alternatives chosen by those in charge of education and on the
pressures exerted on them by the various categories of users. But there
can only be alternatives where choice is possible, in other words where
there are sufficient-natural or, more particularly, financial means or
resources to make possible the introduction and dissemination of those
methods which, because of their nature and scope, have received the
approval of experts.

Word and image

As regards educational methods, the scene is dominated at present by
the stormy relationship between the two main vehicles of thought and
feeling,.w?rd and image. Words can appear in many forms, either
spoken in a lecture or radio broadcast or linked to other media as in
television. Images too appear in very varied forms, from posters to
documentary films.
The role of the image has always been to inform or to stimulate.
In education, however, it took second place as long ago as the sixteenth
century after the introduction and subsequently the domination of the
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 verbal message, principally iii written form. Doctus cum libro was the
formula of knowledge. The basic techniques of the mind's workings,
especially rhetoric and logic (logos: word, reason) werebound up with
the appropriate manipulation of words and syntactical connexions. The
only possible approach to truth was thought to be the correct use of
judgement and reasoning, the building blocks of which were words
joined together in a coherent and systematic way. School and university
teaching was based almost exclusively on communication of this kind.
It is this supremacy which is now being challenged, in practice and in
theory. Modern man acquires most of his information from sources
other than written texts. Information and data abouethe physical and
non-physical world come to him in the most varied ways through words
(recorded or not) and, to an increasing extent, through images. Visual
representation has invaded everybody's world wherever the modern
way of life has reached.
Is this a good or a bad thing? The answer is largely subjective. It
depends on one's conception of the conditions for acquiring
knowledge, the nature of learning and the positive or negative effect of
the traditional rules of the logical game. Those who support the claims
of the image condemn the harm done by bookish, backward-looking-
civilisation, attached to traditional values and tending to confuse
style with intellectual precision. They point to the superiority of a
medium which appeals to the intuition and whose message has a direct
meaning which can be deciphered without the long preparat6ry stages
required by mastery of the written message.
On the other hand, there are those who pin their faith on the
written medium alone. They are deeply distrustful of the visual
message, seeing it as the symbol arid, to a certain extent, the instrument
of what they condemn and reject in the manifestations of the modern
spirit and which can be summed up as the withering away of reflective
thought. The image is the immediate present, the intrusion of sensation
(not to say the sensational). They feel that people are dominated by
posters, television, the cinema and the illustrated weekly and that under
the all-powerful impact of these media on the imagination, the
bulwarks and defences patiently constructed by centuries of written
civilisation are crumbling.
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 There is some truth in both contentions. For a mind endeavouring
to unravel the world's complexities and find its way through them,
there are, it seems, as many dangers in the verbal, book-oriented
approach as in the visual approach. Both give rise to illusions against
which it is advisable arid vital to. oneself. This, thougK, is not
really the problem. Instead of setting one against the other, it is fairer
and more productive to put these two broad categories of media side
by side, to see what resources they offer for knowledge and education
and, in the light of indispensable methodological criteria, to study how
they can best be employed (timing, conditions of use, etc.) to render
the services which may be expected of them.
In this connexion, there are two points to be considered:
(a) In most cases, the best solution, wherever possible, is to combine
the different approaches, which complement each other and make up
each other's deficiencies and defects: for instance, a television
programme introducing an author and-encouraging the reading of his
books, or a book about a country where the pictures and text are used
in counterpoint (and the pictures are not just the visual illustration of
the text) and where the picture expresses what the,text cannot
adequately express and vice versa. Progressive forms-of modern
education provide rema,:kable examples of this kind of approach.
(b) A criticism made of any medium may prove groundless at a later
stage in its development. This is true of television which was rightly
criticised for its inability to fit in with a flexible timetable and the
non-repetitive nature of its message. The recent invention of video-tape
recording meets the dual requirement of flexibility in time and
repetition of the message.

Innovation and tradition

It is thoiight in some educational circles that innovation in teaching
methods as in any other aspect of education is good in itself, the
argument being that new means are required to meet new situations,
that by their nature and scope, traditional means are an obstacle to
necessary progress, and that if the paths followecLbyr education are
the same ones as have been trodden over the centuries by generations
of professional teachcrs, the substance of education cannot fail to be
affected thereby.
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 Arguments of this kind carry a certain weight, of course, and it is
impossible to deny the need to link substance and form in any effort
at renewal. In the present case, however, novelty should neither receive
automatic acceptance nor preclude the use of well-established methods.
The only guide is whether the means are suitable to the end. Whaf is
most important, in any case, is the methodology, i.e. the general spirit
and the lines of emphasis. This is .he level at which invention and
imagination, allied to rationalisation, are needed. In many cases, the
instruments or the techniques selected are of themselves neutral and
acquire their significance and force only through the spirit and the
manner in which they are used.

Range and penetration

As long as education was only for a small elite, the range of the media
was not a particularly, important criterion. As soonas education
emerged as a universal right and became available to the broad masses
of the world's population, the relationship between the strictly
educational value of the medium and its penetrating power had of
necessity to be taken info consideration. A priori, a radio programme
which can reach millions of-people at once takes precedence from this -

point of view over a discussion by a group leader. Technical as well as

economic considerations can swing the balance in favour of extensive
education programmes employing the mass media.-The criterion of
range and power of penetration cannot be considered in isolation from
the rest, any more than can any other criterion of selection. One always
returns to the basic questions: Who is education aimed at in its general
or specific aspects? What effects and results does one wish to obtain
(e.g. rapid spread of superficial notions or a thorough training in the
ability to study, think and form a judgement)? What stages does
education follow (in the short, medium and long term) and what are
the principal media used at each of these stages?

Examination of the means available

The means available must be examined in the light of the methodology
seCout above and using some of the criteria for selection which have
been mentioned.
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12 1
 Taking education in all the true breadth and scope of the term, it is
clear that there are innumerable ways of educating and training people
of all ages, and that these cannot be rigidly classified. Moreover, if the
professional educator is imbued with the principles,of an education
'which draws upon all the sources of life and all the forms of experience,
if he can see clearly what he is aiming at and knows how knoledge is
acquired and how the personality develops, he will be capable, in order
to achieve his aim, of taking advantage of all the opportunities and all
the material and technical resources available to him. If necessary, he
will invent new ones or find new uses for the old.
Despite this fluid situation, which is peculiar to education, the
experience of educational institutions and educators has produced a
number of relatively stable and solid forms which have proved their
worth and cannot be ignored. There exists a stock of means,
techniques, aids and instrumc_its which, if properly known and used,
offers resources which could not reasonably be disregarded.

Traditional methods
Lesson and lecture. These, for centuries, have been the most widely
used methods of education.. The paths of lifelong education, naturally,
lead quite another way. There is, of course, still room in any kind of
teaching for lectures, provided they are set in a much wider context, at
the right time, and as part of a succession of educational operations. At
certain intervals, which vary according to the subject and to the age of
the students, it is valuable to present part of what is known or a
particular portion of knowledge in a coherent exposition which opens
up horizons for the mind and awakens a pupil's interest in finding out
more for himself. In any given group of pupils or students, however,
this kind of intellectual and artistic exercise should not be the preserve
of a single person and it takes on [Link] educational significance
only if each member of the group is called on to speak at some time or
other. Furthermore, the lecture or lesson will cease to be central to
education but will play an intermittent and subsidiary role and will
becomeineaningful by virtue of the rational place alloted to them .

in theoverall scheme of education.'

 Group techniques. The methodological principle of exchange and
communication findsits commonest expression M education in the
organisation of group work.
There have been countless studies and experiments over the last
thirty years concerning the group, its functions; its functioning, its
educational effects and the different ways in which it can be organised.
.It is obvious that 'putting individuals together is not enough to start an
educational process going as if by magic. It has been fo-und, in fact,
that a wrongly composed and poorly organised group can have harmful
effects..Blockages occur and a clumsy or premature use of certain
group techniques can cause diffiCulty and may even be dangerous for
the particularly sensitive individuals, the balance of whose personality
carLbe disturbed almost to the point of loss of identity. .

- Such & awbacks are inherent in any method and it is important to

be c f them. Experience has, however, shown group work to be
of irreplaceable value, particularly in non-formal education. In
° well-conducted group activity, the individual gains a heightened
awareness of his identity vis4vis others and develops a fux:,[Link]
part of his character, the relationship with others. The ever-preSent
competition factor tends to become less important in the group and
giVes way to the factor of mutual enrichment through the interplay
of differences.
For a group to function satisfactorily, it is vital not only for all its
members to share a common spirit but also, for a number of rules to be
observed. The rules are 'le substance Of a method which is worked out
little by little on the basis of observation and interpretation of successes
and failures, and they concern the number of participants, the
arrangement Of the premises, the placing of participants with respect to
each other, procedure e.g., the role of the various members 'of the
group, the function and foie of the person id'charge, the function and
role of an observer, often chosen in turn from group members, the,
organisation, functioning and phasing of the different kinds of
discussion, etc. Light is thrown on these various aspects by systematic
-research; known by the general name of group dynamics, which is
coming to occupy ever-increfising placeand to have growing
importance in the field of educational psychology.
1 22

1
23
 The value and significance of group work naturally depend to a
gieat extent on the intellectual and, more generally, cultural material
the group has to work on. This shows the importance of preparatory
work by the person or persons in charge. It is Their task, for example,
to provide documentation on the subject being studied. Similarly,
group work goes hand-in-hand with the rational use of information
supplied by the mass media.
However important this aspect'of the methodoldgi may be, there is
one precaution which must be observed. One cannot expect everything
, of the group and entrust everything to it. Side by side with group work,
there is individual work, which is just as important and as vital, if only
because an individual, for much of his life, is alone and isolated and
because such essential aspects of intellectual activity as the exercise of
judgement can only be experienced in the solitude of the individual.
mind.

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A SPECIAL CASE: FORMAL EDUCATION

When one considers the heavy burden which educational activities place
on [Link] and economy of every country, and when one looks at
the amount of human effort which goes into teaching, one can hardly
refrain from looking into education to see whether it is serving its
purpose i.e., whether it is responding adequately to all these
challenges. Is it efficient? Whit is its cost benefit, iatio? Does it help
people to fulfil their human destiny? Is it successful as an equalising
and democratising force? These are the questions which we shall
examine in the following-paragraphs.

Education and work

Most teachers acknowledge only grudgingly the close relationship
between their activities and the needs of the-economy. They see their
functions, as a rule, in a different light: to instruct and train individuals
on an'abstract plane where institutions are of no account and where'
such links with production and administration as mutt are purely
accidental. For such 'utilitarian' purposes, there is technical education
and, of course, the training of society's professional cadres (doctors,
engineers, lawyers and teachers) at the higher education level. In fact,
the links between the economic and educational worlds are not only
close but also strong, and they work both ways: the country's
economic activities supply educational establishments with the
resources they need starting with the money needed for school
buildings and teachers' salaries; in tom, the health and balance of the
economy depend on the kind of instruction and training which the
various elements of the population receive.
in this connexion, a number of observations are called for:
(a) Except in the case of technical training (and some sectors of
,higher education), the future adult is not prepired by education to
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 cope with his real situation, which is essentially that he is destined to
become a worker. Culture and work are considered separately, as if
they belonged to different worlds. Thee is no continuity between the
world of formal,education and that of the everyday existence of most
- human beings; any communication between the two is merely
fortuitous and intermittent.
(b) To the extent that education does aim to provide a vocational
training, it operates very largely in a [Link] many instances, young
people undergo vocational training without the educational authorities
. (and, above them, the political authorities) bo[thering to ascertain what

the corresponding job openings are. In France, for example, it is

reckoned that of every 100 students in the arts faculties, only six are
sure to-find, on reaching adulthood, a job in keeping with their
capacities, a teaching post, for example. In some subjects, such as
sociology or piychologx, the situation is even more alarming.
Meanwhile, industry is short of the engineers, and technicians which it
needs. In India,.the number of higher education graduates' who are
trying vainly to find a use for their diplomas runs into hundreds of
thousands; not only on the arts side but also in the scientific and
technical disCiplines. Quite apart from the personal ordeals2nd the
obvious psychological suffering and-shock which it causes, such a
situation is both anomalous and dangerous: anomalous because it
means an enormous wastage of a nation's resources and energy, and
dangerous to the social equilibrium in that the victims do not accept
their problenis with resignation, but seek a solution in various forms of
violence.
It is probably in the developing countries that this problem is at its
most acute. The reasons are plain: in most cases, especially in Africa
and Asia, the educational systems are a recent acquisition and their
form and content are those inherited from the *powers formerly
administering those territories. The [Link] the educational system
. and the people's material circumstances and way of life is even wider
than in the former colonial countries where, however out of date the
educational structures may be, they are at least a product of those
countries' history, which is not the case in the Third World. Hence it
is no surprise that, despite the spectacular progress which we noted
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R
G
 r.

earlier, schools and universities in these countries succeed in training

only a meagre proportion of the technical and administrative personnel
which they need. The typical situation is under-administration on the
one hand, and massive unemployment among graduates on the other.
The unsuitability of existing structures is glaringly apparent in rural
areas, where the great majority, of these countries' populations still
lives. Occasional efforts have been made to give syllabuses a rural
orientation, but usually these country-folk find that what they learn
not only refers to geographically remote situations, but at the
sociological, cultural and psychological level, relates almost exclusively
to urban contexts. Here, too, the link between education and life is
broken,, resulting, among other things, in the impoverishment of
cultural experience and a temptation to leave the rural areas. In fact,
a short-term result of schooling, in a great many cases, is to encourage
peOple to abandon the villages and swell the urban population. In these
circumstances, some people understandably take the view that
education, as it operates in many parts of the world, is an obstacle to
development. A dissociation of work. and economic matters in generil
from education also afflicts,mOst of the programmes which aim to
stamp out illiteracy among adults. For the most part, the intentions
are praiseworthy: to meet the aspirations of the people, to redress an
injustice, to prove how much importance governments attach to raising
the cultural level of the people, etc., but results rarely come up to
expectations. After the first flush of enthusiasm, interest in reading and
writing fades. Motivation of a 'cultural' nature is not strong enough to
stimulate a long-lasting commitment on the part of individuals and
groups, for whom the problems of subsistence are a matter of urgency.
Even when good results are obtained, they rest on shaky and 'unreliable
foundations. Relapse into illiteracy is the rule in cases where literacy
work has been pursued outside the context of improving the
inhabitants' standards of living.
,
Education and leisure
The growth of leisure is one of the salient facts of our time. Whereas,
for centuries, leisure was the privilege of ohe social class, it is tending
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nowadays to become universal. In an increasing number of countries,
workers enjoy shorter working days and working weeks, and several
weeks' or even months' holiday a year. Alongside these material and
economic factors which govern the use of leisure time, education has
a decisive role to play. Can it be said that the inhabitants of village and
city are prepared, by their education to make the most of the facilities
offered them ?, Experience shows how inadequately people in general
are trained or equipped to embark on the great adventure of leisure.
This is apparent from their relationship with the resources already
available. There may be certain social and cultural facilities missing, but
certain facts still cannot be denied: there are few inhabitants of
industrialised countries who do not have relatively plentiful cultural
resources at their disposal. in France, the United States, and the USSR,
for exa le, there is hardly a household without a television set and
one or m re radio sets. Setting aside preconceived ideas, one is bound
to admit th t in the course of a week there are a great many hours
when it is possible to tune it to a high quality programme, whether of
music, drama, narrative or eotertairunent. The same is true of films,
many of which are not only of great intrinsic interest, but also
represent one of the major forms of expression of present-day
civilisation. The world's literary classics can now be bought for the
price of a packet of cigarettes.
But in fact do we see? The surveys carried out in a great many
countries must give us food for thought: the audience for quality
programmes is minimal, and where there are several channels, it is
automatically the one which puts out the artistically most mediocre
and least demanding programmes that commands the widest audience.
A kind of civic courage is needed by the programme authorities if they
Wish to continue to leaven their broadcasting schedules with
programmes of an adult character. When they do so, it is in defiance of
the taste of the public at large, which has a marked predilection for the
stereotyped and the hackneyed, for the uninspired and for candy floss.
In these circumstances, it is unfair to blame the authorities; or to
be more exact, the real responsibilities are not at this level but at the
level of education and at that very time in a person's life when his
tastes, habits and cultural aptitudes are formed. It is at the age of five,
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 ten or fifteen that one learns to communicate, masters the art of
expression, and d#covers the beauty and power of what painting,
poetry and music have to say and that one experiences the revelation
Of the tragic and the comic. For the most gifted among us and those
With the greatest staying power, a goOd start is not so important;to
such as these, moments are sure to come when truth reveals itself, in
spite of obstacles. But for the majority, there is a strong risk of
premature burial of their true being by an education which is content
merely to present models for imitation and which does not aim, first
and foremost, at keeping alive and developing in each individual the
creative instinct and the ability to create:
These thoughts, which were provoked by the behaviour of radio
and television audiences, apply equally well to cinema audiences.
They show the same inability to choose and to gravitate towards what
is best.
What is to be said about reading? It is here that the'gulf between the
declared intentions of schooling and its real effects is widest. Surveys
carried out in two Western European countries, France and Italy, have
confirmed our expectations, born of experience: in these countries,
reading is a minority activity. In more than half the households in these
,countries no book ever 'crosses the tireshold. We shall not at this
point, enter into a discussion of the relative merits of oral and written
communication. All we wish to demonstrate is that an adult who has
spent ten years of his precious existence sitting at a school desk has
perhaps learnt to spell, has perhaps absorbed certain bagic rules of
grammar, and knows how long it takes three men to dig two ditches;
but he has not acquired the essential thing that school should have set
out-to give him, namely the taste for and habit of reading. Yet books
4,1
are the key to almost all serious and profound study and acquisition
of information: outside his owri experience, which is necessarily
restricted in space and time, the individual who does not refer to books
has scarcely any means of going beyond the stage of opinion and
building, up a coherent body of knowledge. It is also through books
that the individual escapes from the tyranny of the commonplace (and
the sensational) and, rising above events, reaches the stage of reflective
thought and a sense of cultural perspective.
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1 hit?
 LS
If the school does not succeed in raising the individual to this level,
it is clearly failing in one of its most imperative tasks if we accept
that the school's purpose is to help men to lead full and worthwhile
lives, both at work and in leisure time.

Education and politics

It is also true that politics are not given their proper place in education.
Let there be no misunderstanding: I am not leferring to political
education, which has its time and place depending on one's interests
and personal choice, but to education for politics. Admittedly, some
countries kin courses in civics or citizenship, but, as a rule, this is the
dullest part of the school curriculum, the part carrying the least
conviction and the one to which pupils respond with the blankest
indifference. It usually consists of a description ot the country's
governmental institutions, and a series of lectures on the rights and
duties of die citizen. In fact, most pupils reach adulthood without ever

important things in
social classes and
it
having been instructed or encouraged to think about the, most
it public and private lives: peace, war, justice,
elations between them, trade unionism,
development, and, still more important, the nature, role, functions and
structure of the State. The whole of education is weakened by the lack
of politicil consciousness among the greater part of the teaching
profession. Nearly all those who are in charge of teaching children see
politics as a debased form of human activity, which is unavoidable, but
only distantly and indirectly related to culture and the development of
the personality. They take the view that once they have 'rendered unto
Caesar the things which are Caesar's' by, providing courses in civic
education, they are then free to attend to their own province, that of
the mind.
True enough, the all-round education of the citizen is achieved
through other channels as well as formal education. It is by striving for
a living wage, for freedom of expression, for his rights, against injustice
and by participation and solidarity that the individual develops his
political personality and thus becomes adult in the full sense of the
word. However, there is often something missing, even among those
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most determined and competent in political activity: a just, ample and
prolonged reflection upon the nature of power, its components, and
the forces which act in and through institutions and human beings.
If the purpose of schooling is to prepare people for their life's work
and teach them to decipher and understand the structures of the world
in which they have, to live, so that they dq not travel blindly through an
incoinprehensible universe, and if it is considered important to put a
stop to the unhealthy and unjustified separation between the private
and the public individual, then the school's task appears in a new light.
Priority must be given to educating the individual for democracy. He
must be prepared for choice, responsibility, information and
participation. It is clear how closely these objectives are connected with
the overall objectives of culture, as set out in the foregoing paragraphs.
The ability to judge is in fact indivisible, as is the ability to keep oneself
informed and to be vigilant.
All educational programmes and methods at all levels should be
actuated by this concern to awaken political consciousness and develop
the virtues of democratic man. This concern should be made manifest
in the content of education. The purpose of teaching literature, history
and geography is not merely to stuff the memory with facts and
judgements, but to .'show along what paths the spirit of mankind has
journeyed in order to attain self-possession and to learn liberty. There-is
no finer or more fascinating story, and none reveals so clearly the true
meanirg of the cultural experience. No discipline is alien to this type of
teaching. The role of education for science is, surely, to train minds for
research, investigation, discussion, objectivity, risk,taking and
intellectual adventure in short, a set of attitudes and aptitudes which
the citizen cannot do without, and which are the fum foundations of
any modern democracy. The absence of such political training, from
this simultaneously cultural and interdisciplinary angle, is one of the
most glaring deficiencies and are of those most fraught with harmful
consequences. It constitutes a major obstacle to the development of an
adult personality.
The civic virtues which formed the basis of the individual citizen's morality in
the polis of antiquity have gradually depreciated and given way to the virtues
prescribed by a theological and moralistic conception of existence.

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The dimensions of the personality
In most educational systems, the models of success andior failure have
been established at a particular moment in the evolution of educational '

thoUght and action. For the European (and assimilated) systems, this
moment was the heyday of the aristocratic-and bourgeois society, i.e.,
the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. In those days, the professions
which were dominant in influence and prestige were those which used
words: churchnien, men of letters, statesmen and administrators,.
society men (and women), lawyers and magistrates. As a result, the
main effort of education was concentrated on instilling the rules and
resources of fine language. A flexible and practised memory, stocked
with references to the past, and a well-endowed mind, versed in the
subtleties of literary invention these were the important ingredients
of success. Society, of which the schools or universities were both the
product and the expression, could be relied upon to make good,
through its teaching and its rites, whatever education was unable to
provide. Continuity was assured between the institution and life as
lived. Since then, society has evolved, and conditions, attitudes and
customs have changed, but the institution has remained set in old ways.
When it became necessary to provide education for the-common
people, primgy education modelled itself upon the education of the
aristocracy but these were scaled-down models, lacking the spirit
which had brought the originals into being (hence it is not surprising
that the most vigorous and conscious elements of the working classes
failed to find their own image reflected in the values and aims of this
kind of education, and looked elsewhere).
Nowadays, the split between the general lines of emphasis of
education and the way in which the institutions operate people's
real needs is growing ever wider. Neither the school nor thethe university
is any longer the expression of society as it is, nor are they instruments
suited to the deifelopment of the personality of people living in the
modern world.
The models of success are no longer appropriate or, at least, if
they are suited' to anything, it is to reproducing the type of individual
who is responsible for putting them into practice, i.e. the teacher. For
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most people, living conditions are no longer like they were m the past.
Work with words has become the exception rather than the rule. Most
people nowadays have to come to terms and establish relationships
with objects and structures. New dimensions of the personality come
into play m defining the human condition and building the future: the
dimension of work (and its corollary, leisure), the political dimension
which we have discussed above, and also the emotional, artistic and
physiCal dimensions.
Just as education makes an artificial and harmful distinction
between culture and politics, so it creates a dangerous separation
between mind and body, the emotional and the social. It is aimed at an .

abstract individual.
Certain philosophers have made much of the taste for the abstract
which is so characteristic of education, seeing it as a virtue, and even as
the essential virtue of basic education. They have seen in it an
instrument for bringing about equality among all men, and hence a
source of democracy. Undoubtedly, some equality is introduced by
these means; equality in reduction to. the abstract mode of being. As it
is nevertheless plain to see that there are inequalities in this system
since there are the weak, the strong, the star pupils and those at the
bottom of the class its advocates fall back on a reassuring ideology,
namely that of merit, which offers consolation for unjust treatment,
teaches resignation to the less gifted and the less successful, and gives a
clear conscience to those who come out on top ih the competition.
In this so-called order, the advantage goes to those whom nature and
the social and cultural circumstances have already favoured. This is the
sanctioning of an injustice.
Thus the system commits two fundamental errors: 'firstly, it
overlooks and ignores the complexity of human beings'and the
multiplicity of natures, temperaments, aspirations, and vocations. This
is an act of violence against human nature, and the fact that it occurs at
a time in a person's life when he is defenceless and unable to protest
makes it all the more serious and inexcusable.
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SCHOOL AND LIFELONG EDUCATION WITH A VIEW
TO BUSINESS MANAGEMENT

Of all the institutions which uphold and assure the functioning of

society, it is the school which finds it most difficult to change. The
army is seeking new paths and preparations for national defence are
now made not in the barracks but iniaboratories, in the minds of
research workers and in the factories. In all countries, agriculture,
albeit the most traditional form of human industry, is taking on a new
aspect and undergoing radical structural changes. But schools and
education as a whole, with a few notable exceptions, have continued
to follow the lines laid down by our forbears of past centuries.
Schools and also, in large measure, universities behave as if we were
still living in the age of stagecoach and the salon, of undisputed
paternal authority and-of women confined to the'home. For the school
world, capitalist structures have never existed, and work has not
become the essential feature of cultural experience; books and the
teacher's words still constitute the main, if not the only instruments
for the transmission of learning.
This resistance to change is not particularly surprising. Firstly,
because one of the functions of education, which must never be
overlooked, s to transmit. It devolves on education to maintain The
link between present generations and the preceding ones; and however
pressing the need to innovate and to follow the evolution of the world,
it would be a mistake to break with the past, with the many pasts.
What we are today is the product of the work and efforts, the struggles-
and conquests of countless generations. To ignore this is to understand
nothing about ourselves and the world around us; to introduce an
element of fragility into the conquests of our, time; to deprive ourselves
of a fundamental dimension of our age and our destiny, and forgo an
endless source of joy.
Thus we can understand, to a certain point, the attitude of those
133
 Who regard education, and the culture whose instrument it is, as the
defence of what they call the cultural heritage. But they are making a
fundamental, mistake. They forget that this experience of the past and
this tradition lose their value and vigour, cease to exist even, except, in
so far as they form part of the experience of a living individual .

resolutely committed to the task of forging the destiny of modern than,

without reference to a past whose main characteristic is that it no
longer exists, and cannot be made to live again; even in thought.
Traditional education is a powerful instrument in the hands of
the authorities --: authorities of every kind. What the authorities-want
are docile, obedient people, people who acceptmeeldy and without
question the places and roles allotted to them, whether as producers,
citizens or elements of the various structures of society; yes-men, .

prepared to let others think and decide for them, to fall in with the
instructions of leaders, guides or heaven-sent men'to tell them what to
a 10 or not to do, to tell or keep secret, to love or hate, to accept or
refuse: In a sense, they live by proxy. Men such ai this use thestock
eplies they have been given and gladly submit to tyranny in all its
d fferent forms the tyranny of fashion, of opinion, of advertising,
o collective passions and enthusiasMs. In so fauas education is the
he *tage'of periods prior to the democratic conception of man and
existence, its aims and activities are designed to continue to keep man
i
in a state of protracted infancy and prevent him from be timing adult
In the full sense of the word. Education is responsible fo the trans-
.14
mission of the ideologies, the frames of reference andl 7ttitudes
which set up a screen of prejudice, taboos and ready-m de ideas
between the reality of the world and the spirit of truth
If this is the type of man we are aiming at someo e who has no
mind of his own and whose ideas, tastes and decisions re imposed from
without then there is no reason to make any substa tial changes in
the present situation. Traditional education has a kin of perfection,
and is absolutely logical. There is no need to assume y ill-will in
explanationof the attitudes of most of the people re onsible for
education: they quite naturally maintain a system fa ourable to them
and expressing the vision of'man and the world with hich they
themselves, under this system, have been impregnate . They are in
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 perfectly:good faith, for instance, when they believe ,n the ideology of
merit, for they fail tosee that the so-called merit of the clever pupils,
who have triumphed over the less clever, in fact conceals such flagrant
and inordinate injusticesas the privilege of birth or money.
But this system, so 'perfect of its kind, so solidly entrenched in
established interest and prejudices, is now beginning to be seriously
'challenged...Searching questions about the justification of existing
procedures are no new phenomena. In the past two centuries, proposals
for reform have been made by all the major schooli of thought, from
the time of Rousseau to that of the existentialists and including Hegel,
Nietsche and, in our day, Piaget, all of whom have called in question
the theory and piactice of our educational system. But it is only in the
past few years that protest has extended outside learned works and the
specialist's study,- It is to be found, today, everywhere: in the streets
and the universities, in the minds and hearts of thousands, if not
millions, of young people, whose protest represents that combination
of folly and wisdom peculiar to their age. They are sometimes
reproachedwith being confused in their ideas. People say of them:
'They don't know what they want. It's easy enough to pull things
down, but,you must know what to put up in their place.' The
-
important point isi that they express their views, their perplexity, their
concern, in many cases their misfortunes, with force. They protest
against a system based on injustice, lack of respect for man, the
utilisation of talent by an inhuman society, the triumph of the strong
and the lucky and the condemnation of the weak. That certain suspect
elements take the opportunity to express their spirit of destruction and
nihilism is no justification for remaining deaf to this appeal.
This movement, essentially revolutionary and instinctive, coincides
with the reflections and conclusions of a whole group of specialists
belonging to a wide variety of disciplines: the psychologists, who
denounce the damage done by a system of education concentrating on
a syllabus and caring nothing for the pupils, who are subjected to a
random process of selection; the sociologists, who show up the
structure of eduCation as archaic and retrograde; the economists, who
maintain that the money spent on education gives poor returns and
that human resources are wasted; and the philosophers, who take the
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MA 0.
view that education in its present form serves to dkiett people from
their real vocation, which is to accept man's estate, live it to the full
and reveal the true nature of manby a process of education which
continues throughout his life.
A first series of questions relates to the age when education takes
place. Traditionally, life was divided into two periods: a period of
preparation which was conmaratively short, since it coincided with
childhood and adolescenee; and a period of practical activity, much
longer, in that it lasted until the end of a man's days. The two periods .

were separated by a series of ceremonies similar to'the litigation rites

of primitive societies!' examinations and, for the privileged, the award
of'diplomas. This kind orseparation,though in itself artificial, could
still be maintained at the time when societies were stable, that is to say
when they were still dominated by an agrarian-type-ciVilisation. Until
fairly recently, the images and character of the world in which a man.
completed his existence differed little from those of the world into
which he was born; and most people could acquire in their early years
'sufficient knowledge and ability for self-expression [Link] them
. through safely to the end of their alloted span. Continuity between the
two worlds, that of life and that of school, was assured. What education
-4ked, society provided: traditions, customs, the lessons and the
example of the older generations, opinions and pressures of the
environment. People went through life progressing from stage to stage,
finally,complging the cycle, after playing all the standard parts of
adulthood, by 'donning the garb of the old.
But what 'awry different picture life now presents. A whole. new
civilisation lies between the cradle and the grave. The physical, moral '..
and intellec*ual scene of our lives changes radically, not merely from
one generation to the next, but sometimes even [Link] to year.
Modern nations are no longer the countries of twenty years ago. Whole
regions are being emptied of their active poputatiOns, which go to swell
the populations of the towns. The development of industries and the
- increase of incomes has been accompanied by the installation of a
cpnsumer society in which the young havehecomeprime movers. It is
'Unnecessary to stress the extent -to which/in:Orals and manners have
changed in all sections of society. You yourselves have watched this
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happen, are witness to the fact that no one has escaped these changes.
But there are also other things more serious, and still more decisive. For
centuries, whole sections of our populations have lived, intellectually
and spiritually; on firm, stable, unequivocal interpretations of a set of
beliefs and certitudes. Admittedly, theie beliefs and certitudes still
exist. They are firmly rooted. But what a difference between now and
the situation only twenty years ago! For each of the major faiths from
which men draw their support and inspiration there are today multiple
interpretations and many schools of thought. To allow oneself to be
guided, step by step, by a teacher of uncontestable, uncontested
authority is becoming less and less possible. Every individual is now
obliged to choose, so that choice is, for all of us, central to our
experience. It would even seem that we are so to speak, driven to
independenee,forced to be free. Even in that section of science which
seemed to be furthest remGved from the threat of storms and eruptions
matheniatics we are now witnessing strange upheavals: Teachers of
this discipline, who would be capable of speaking more learnedly of this
phenomenon, will bear me out. And as to physics and chemistry and
their applications to industry, agriculture and medicine, here again we
are in a state of flux, constantly making new discoveries. Countless
professions are affected by this acceleration of change, making it
essential to gq on adding constantly to our knowledge or techniques.
It is no longer possible, in these conditions, to speak of cultural or
intellectual qualifications. The knowledge and !blow-how accumulated
in any one period of life quickly becomes out of date, and loses its
value. Anyone nowadays who desires to keep up to date and in touch
with develdPments is obliged to engage constantly in 'refresher'
training, to use a term with which you are familiar, as much on the
social plane as on that of general and professional education.
This is an indication gf the importance of the part played by adult
education. Since the education people receive in childhood and
adolescence no longer suffices to enable them to lead a satisfaCtory
life, adults cannot afford not to go on training, studying and acquiring
new skiffs. This is difficult .to do, people Will say. Adults have little
time; they are tired, taken up by all manner of worries and
responsibilities. There is no doubt some truth in these objections. But
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the economic difficulties often alleged are largely imaginary; and in
fact, adults in our societies have much more spare time than they are
willing to admit. Think only of all the hours spent in cafes, watching
television or reading rubbishy magazines. [Link] are said to be
exhausted are in fact capable of making great efforts, provided they
have the interest or desire to do so.
Then there is another factor which plays a decisive part in our age
the increase of leisure. After being for generations the piivilege of a
small minority, leisure has now,become available to millions of workers,
bringing a new dimension into their lives. It is reckoned that, before
long, people in our societies will devote much more time to rest and
recreation than they do to their work. This raises the major question of
what they are to do with their leisure. The answer lies partly in
education:. The first point is that there must be education foi leisure,
that is to say that people must be prepared [Link] make worthy .

use of this free time. And secondly, provision must be made for
education durilig leisure time:That is to say that a large proportion of
people's Spare evenings arid weekends, and also of their weeks and
months of holiday couiCand should be used foi intellectual activities,
study and research,, occupations designed 'to arouse their curiosity and
involving the pursuit of allkinds oiartistic,actiyities. This is in any case
the only way of making surejhat leisure becomes an asset, and not a
source of boredom and estrangement,
What, in these conditions, is the place and the role of the school? I
put' this question to those of you whose job it is to teach children. I
thinkyou will agree that the role of education;.Whilst 'decreasing in one
sense, will increase in another,If education extends to the whole of life,,
the school will occupy a comparatively short period in relation to the
process as a whole: The time for education in the full sense of the word
Will be in adult life, when man is in a position to play both an objective
and a subjective role in his own education. The school will then
constitute rather an important, decisive prelude to the full and
complete process of education.
But at the same time the responsibility devolving on school
.education will increase considerably, since it will be directed to the
development of the person as a whole, instead of concentrating, as
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 hitherto, on the transmission of knowledge.:
You may well ask at this juncture whit I Understand by .education.
My reply will at once simple in its wording and complex in its
implications: education is the development of the human being, by the
exploitation of his capacities in 'all the variety of his experience. This -
definition is probably incomplete: but I dobbt, in view of the
complexity of the elements involVed;IWhether a wholly satisfactory
definition can be found, Af:all events,'. this formula'stakes account of
the followingpoints. `.*
The accent, is on the MiMan being. The real education process
concentrates not on a bodyOf knowledge designated arbitrarily as the
content of education, but on' the .neellsOf the human being, his
aspirations and the living relations he inaintains with the world of
objects and persons. Edueation covers' everything that Can provide
intellectual, aesthetic or spiritual sustenance for the individual and
becomes an integral part of his being. To put it the other way round,
the content of any teaching, whatever its importance or value, is
educationally worthless if it remains external, if it is not adapted to the
recipient's abilities and reactions.14fe, with its needs,conditions,
rhythms and 'expressions, is therefm to be regarded as our supreme
guide in all our educational ventures:. .

The accent is also on development. For this human being of whom

we are speaking is not what he is for one day or one moment, but
during the whole of his existence. He is what he does and what he
becomes at every moment of his life, at every stage of his development,
with all his achievements; failings and successes judged, superseded and
assimilated. For him, the truth is ni3t a given fact but has to be
vconquered. As we can see from so many examples of the work of
artists, it is at the end of the road and not at the beginning, after
passing through many, Afferent stages; that a man really comes into his
Own, provided that at the start he has not been cut off from the sources
of creativity. .

Placing the Accentbon the human being also means placing icon the
importance of differences. No two beings are identical. Each has his
own originality, his special characteristics and his own way of living his
life, even if he resembleS others. It is precisely through his specificity,
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43

'provided that it is respected, that he can attain the universality. of man's

estate'and true flaternity with his fellow men.
One conclusion stands out, namely that there is no one education,
but as many educational processes as there are individuals. It is of prime
importance to individualise education at all levels, whether one is
dealing with adults or with young people and children.
if education caters for the human being, then it must cater for the
human being as a whole including the intellectual aspect, of course,
but the other aspects are just as important, although they are usually
neglected or forgotten. Sensibility, like the mind, can be trained, and
this is equally necessary. The ability and desire to ,:ommunicate with
others must also be taken care of These are the essential bases of
sociability. The same is true of thevarious outlets for artistic instinct,
whether in music or in the visuararts. Emotional, social and artistic
illiteracy are as great a threat to the balance of the individual, and
ultimately of society, as the other forms of illiteracy which are better
known and easier to identify. The unilateral developmentof cognitive
intelligence, at the expense of other modes of perceiving reality and
controlling the resources of one's personality produces psychologically
distorted people who are unable to live-in this world with the necessary
ease, competence and grace. Even more so when it comes to the human
-body--,-which-for-centuries-and-even nowadays-has-been-and-is-the-first
thing to be forgotten in the educational process. 'Know your body' is
the title of a number of a would-bespiritualist journal. This is indeed a
priority objective today to know one's body in order to master it, to
exploit its powers of expression and communication and to curb its
excesses. For there it physical degradation, but is it not attended by
intellectual and emotional degradation? Balance is the kejr word here,
with care for every dimension of our being and the support that each
dimension can give to the others.
Can any education worthy of the name fail to take these
requirements into account? Now, you know the situation. How many
limits and constraints are imposed by educational structures and by
the tyrannk of traditional curricula and methods? Is it not true that the
objectives of school education should be thoroughly re-examined, so as
to take into account all facets of the personality and differences of
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 nature, temperament, aspirations and natural bents? With the present
rigid system, only those who, through their temperament and ability to
adapt their talents; are able to conform to the prevailing models can
profit by it. The others become marginal or take refuge in dreams, or
else in the comfortable and reassuring, but finally traumatising, position
of the bad pupil. .

Rather than using the term curriculum, which always suggests/

something rigid and fixed, let us speak of content and trends:- These are
indicated by an analysii of requirements, such as that made above, but
which naturally changes according to the transformations occurring in
the lives of individuals and of societies. It may also be noted that a
balance should .[Link] struck between the requirements of the
community and those of the individual; and this is often a difficult task:
This twofold, complementary reference to the developing human
being and to life has one major consequence. It is [Link] that
education is at work in many different situations and circumstances,
wherever people are learning, acquiring knowledge,.training themselves
. and shaping their personality. In other words, education goes on in a
job, in the life of a. couple, in relations between parents and children (a
[Link] process, incidentally, if it be true that parents hive as much to
learn from their children as vice versa). This has always been the case,
but, today, It has become an urgent and often crucial reality. It is to be
maitim-f1111-Tordelri different civic, political or trade union
commitments. It is scarcely possible to become an adult without taking
an active part in the various forms of national life. Needless to *say,
these situations are of course all ambivalent and ambiguous. They may
form or deform the character. Hence the importance of habits and
attitudes, the foundations of which are laid in the first years of life. As
you may imagine, this is not in any way an attempt to diminish the
importance of the'part played by-the school, but to shed light as well
on the overriding, fundamental importance of the education received
within the family. ; ,

We now come to the great problem of methods, which is central to

our subject, since it concerns the human being. Method is know-how,
habit, reflexes and organisation. It is the ambition of every teacher
worthy of the name to develop and implant firmly in his pupils the
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ability to learn and to evolve, as well as a taste for intellectual work,
exercise and training, without which there is no true education.
If we accept this viewpoint, it is our right and, indeed, our duty to
ask whether all these methods which are available to us,.these
traditional techniques, this bag of tricks inherited from the past, thanks
to which we continue to educate generations of pupils, are adapted
to our purposes? Can we continue to use mechanisms which have the
effect of causing large sectors of each generation to lose faith in the
educational system, to such a point that they will never again take part
in any form of education? Can we continue to run on the same lines an
educational system whose avowed and concealed percentages of failure
are higher than those of any other human enterprise? Who would
accept the idea that an engineer should construct bridges, with the
expectation that one out of two, or two out of three, would collapse as
soon as traffic passed over them? And yet it does not strike us as
scandalous because we are so used to it that men should be held in
less regard than stones and animals. Wars, revolutions, and the
exploitation of the workers, testify to this. Education is another
example, although more subtle and better disguised. The moment has
come to show that we are scandalised. It is a matter of urgency to ,
remedy the situation and put an end to wastage which costs society so
much and ruins so many careers.
As soon as it is realised that it is a question, of helping men to live,
the rules of a new methodology follow automatically:
To put the emphasis on the pupil and not on the curriculum.
This follows on logically from the foregoing premisses.
To consider education as a process and not as the transmission
of knowledge.
To substitute qualitative appreciation of the child as an individual
for quantitative assessment which establishes artificial scales .

between individuals.
To reduce competition to a minimum and replace it by a system of
team-work to which each brings his own talents and personal
experience and contributes to the common search for knowledge
through his curiosity and his questions.
To treat children as children, with the problems of their age and not.
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 as miniature adults. The more a child lives a full and harmonious
childhood and, as an adolescent, a true adolescence, the betters
prepared he will be for adult life. Otherwise he will always look
back with regret and nostalgia upon a ruined childhood.
To judge as little as possible; for jUdgement halts and betrays an
existence.
To link education to life as far as possible. This means, inter alia,
preparation for a working life and preparation for leisure. It
seems to me that it is just' as important to use radio, television
and films in school, as it is to teach`children to undo-stand a
tragedy by Corneille.
Children shouldbe taught in these early years to choose and
recognise what is gOod and useful as- ,opposed to what is bad and
harmful. It is through intelligent practice that they will learn
how to behave properly and not through speeches or sermons.
The same reasoning applies to informative. The children of today
are the citizens of tomorrow. They must be trained, as from now, to
abstract from the knowkedge imparted and the messages addressed to
them genuine information; based on critical judgement and a scientific
approach.
These are only a few examples of the link between education and
the situations with which life faced us. Each will find others for Idinself.
The time has come for all teachers to acquire an extensive, sound
knowledge of the basic principles of psyChology, characterologY, and
group and environmental sociology which will enable them to
-understand each of the pupils entrusted to their care. Educators must
no longer be more or less gifted transmitters of knowledge, but rather
technicians of the personality. For this they need knowledge, but also
practical experience and art. This is required of technicians of the body
such as doctors. Can we ask less of a technician of the intellectual,
emotional and spiritual aspects of human nature?
Although all the foregoing reflections apply to the general run of
situations, they are clearly relevant first and foremost to the business
world.
Traditional education still prepares future adults as if human activity
consisted mainly of rhetoric. For in the seventeenth and eighteenth
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centuries, when the structures of secondary education were established,
as was pointed out earlier the professions dominant in both power and
prestige were those connected with the mastery of words, that is to
say, lawyers, churchmen, men of letters, soldiers and politicians. Other
occupations were marginal and left to the random workings of
experience and improvisation. The world has changed. Social functions
and hierarchies have been modified but the spirit of the school and the
university has remained, mutatis mutandis, basically the same.
What modern society needs at all levels is a different kind of man
and therefore a new kind of education. The individual today must be
equipped to cope with the real, concrete tasks of the modern world
which are first and foremost economic and technical. This is bound to
entail radical and substantial changes in the objectives, curricula and
methods at the various levels of education.
What is of prime importance is to reconcile culture and work. If it
be true that genuine culture reflects man's efforts to transform all the
features of Nature in order to give them.a human face and character,
then clearly those who are engaged in production are the most powerful
instruments of this human intervention in the natural order. This is
what all teachers in our schools have forgotten and continue to
overlook. They see human life as divided into two parts-. One part is
concerned with freedom, pleasure, and nobility of spirit, dedicated to
literature, the arts and theoretical science. According to their way of
thinking, this is the cultural part of life. The other part is focused on
the need to earn a living, with the shrunken personality turning its back
on culture. This, they say, is the fate of human labour in all its forms.
Nothing could be further from the truth, for there are no such divisions
of the human personality. As for cultural experience, nothing could be
further from the truth either, foi it embraces all aspects of human life,
and professional activity to begin with. It is high time that educators
became aware of these fundamental facts in modern society which put
the structures and development of the individual and social personality
in true perspective.
Next, the essential task of modern education will be to prepare men
for change. The spirit of adventure, risk, research, experiment and
renewal, which is the essence of science and of historical evolution,
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 .

must penetrate deeply into the structures and curricula of our

educational systems. It is no longer a question of revealing knowledge,
whatever it may be, but of equipping everyone, by appropriate means,
so that he can pursue his own investigation. If I am not mistaken, this
is the kind of man, with his feet firmly on the ground, realistic in the
philosophical and Methodological sense of the word, who can ensure
the successful operation of our soCieties, industrial, commercial and
administrative structures.
This is the kind of man who is produced by lifelong education. If he
has been suitably trained from childhood, he will never cease to learn, to
study and thus to educate himself. He will never think that he has
reached a point of knowledge or perfection which allows him to stop.
But always, tirelessly, he will test his knowledge against facts and .

changing situations, while at the same time, playing his part in the
building of a more harmonious and just world, less wasteful of human
resources.
This surely also means that business management cannot be
considered as an end in itself independently of the other aspects of the
life of societies and individuals. The aims of management must coincide
with the general aims of society and take into account the basic
aspirations of people in the world today.
Those responsible fol. business administration must not forget that
they, too, are citizens, just like other people, even if they have more
power and heavier responsibility. It is in so far as the fact of sharing
a common nature and.a common destiny with all mankind is grasped
and reflected in practice that business management can assume its
profound significance, which is to serve men and not an abstract and
sterile image of success.

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The human body is Agt made of flesh and bone alone. It is also made of
stones. For it is in the stones of the house, the street and the town that
this collective self, in wh h we all play a part and through which we all,
willy -nilly; express ourselve , settles and develops. It receives a large
part of its conceptions and fe lings and even of its perceptions from the
material substratum of its exist ce. °
What lessons in living and beh tour are received by the average
human being whose life is spent in modern housing estate or a block
of flats, or one whose childhood and outh were pissed among the
houses of suburbia? They were lessons isolation, distrust and
restriction, with communication denied a d no contact with. others.
The individual self becomes a special posse ion whose keys and secrets
are kept snugly concealed from the outside rld. This is the language
of doors, bolts, railings and watch dogs; this is e eternal refrain of the,
narrow passages and closed doors housing the achines in which the
death of a neighbour is learnt from scanning the o tuary columns in
the newspaper.
This is how most people in our modern societies sp d their lives.
They live in prison the prison of their room, their flat, eir means
of transport, their office or factory, their small, apportion task, the
prison of their,individual consciousness turned in on itself d immured
in its precious intimacy.
Is not the place where a child introduced to knowledge an where
he spends the greater part of his youth itself a kind of prison? Heie, he
is deprived of his liberty, has tasks imposed on him, must submit to the
decisions of an all-powerful teacher whose business it is to judge him
unremittingly. Added to this, school buildings are, with a few
exceptions, modelled, both inside and out, on erections for the
incarceration of adults, namely prisons or barraCks.
What a contrast between this language of things and the language of
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 men! The primary and secondary school teachers speak to us of
universalism. Through them, although distorted and hardly
recognisable, come the messages of the poets, the inventors of stories
and legends, and explorers of the outer and inner worlds. These are
lessons of fellowship and broth-eihood. The schoolmaster's words
conjure up the picture of a united human race. The 'Priest and vicar
also talk of our common destiny. They speak of love and reconciliation.
But, once out of church, this 'neighbour' of whom they spoke. turns out
to be the min next to us in the tube whose smell or appearance we
cannot endure.
We must not, of course, expect that a transformation of the material
framework of life will solve everything. We must not imagine that we
shall have radiant cities and houses, so long as the economic and social
structures of life stay as they are. The conflict between languages
mirrors the conflict between classes and sectors. The chaos visible in the
building of our towns and homes reflect the chaos of civilisation. It is
the same contempt for the human elements that governs the anarchic
utilisation of the labour force and the building of homes. If we wish to
have done with building chaos, whatever the scale on Which it occurs,
it is imperative that we work towards a new order in industry and
human relations. The civilisation of a country or of an age is an
----indivisible-phenomenon and it-isutoplan to imagine a harmonious
material world which is built, lived in and inspired by lost souls.
Does this mean that nothing is possible and that nothing must be
dared until the gfeat events which are to change the face of the earth
come to pass? This is what some people think and one can see why. But
it is a short-sighted view. The history of the last fifty years has
confirmed if there was any need for it that although civilisation is
indivisible and although the temporal and the spiritual are firmly
linked, the various elements do not proceed at the same pace.
Some countries have had their economic revolution but have
maintained the traditional framework of authority and power. Even
Where socialism has been established-and where the class system has
been abolished, there has been a lack of imagination in creating material
frameworks for life to match the new ideology. The daily round for
workers varies little [Link] industrial society to another, whether
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 this society be red, pink or verging on white. One single and very
important exception is the deilelopment of community leisure-time
structures. There are large numbers of libraries, sports grounds, young
pioneers' clubs and cultural centres in the Soviet Union and, generally
speaking, in all those countries which follow or try to follow its
example.
There is another thing which reduces the temptation to demand all
or nothing. Whilseit is true that the material environment cannot have
a human character or aspect until men themselves have become fully
human in a spirit Of reconciliation-and communication, it is equally
true that this will not occur by magic. The great decisive changes will
come about only if the way is paved for them by a multitude of half-
way changes serving a two-fold purpose: firstly to provide particular
solutions to particular probleMs and, secondly, to prepare, in
co-operation with others, for major overall reforms. Each innovation,
whether in art, music, morals and customs, or the status of men and
women, has this dual significance. It is the same for education.
It is becoming increasingly 'clear that education can no longer
follow the paths blazed for it by age-old traditions. Current systems
and practices which restrict men's education to childhood and youth
and which perpetuate the objectives and methods of our forefathers
without reference to the way in which people really live or to the
diversity of human nature, are proving, more and more, to be
erroneous, ineffective and unjust. The research and thinking of
.psychologists, sociologists and economists and the experience of the
most perceptive educators lead to the same conclusion, namely that
education must be considered as a continuous process going on
throughout one's life and every stage of one's development. The
consequences of taking this stand are limitless. Everything must be
reviewed and thought out afresh: the structures of education, the place,
role and content of curricula, the objectives of primary education, the
links and relationships between the different forms of education at the
various ages (childhood, adolescence, maturity and old age), the
recruitment, role and training of teachers, etc.
Nevertheless, all those engaged in this task of renewing instruction
and training in the context of lifelong education are fully aware of the
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obstacles and contradictions existing in the institutional, legal,
economic and material [Link] life. What is the good of teaching
men to communicate and to be forthcoming with each other if they
live in a world of walls and barriers? What is the good of [Link]
to express themselves and to reveal themselves, both to themselves and
to others through theatre, singing, drawing, or sport if they have neither
places where they can meet nor the instruments of these various
incarnations of the poetic instinct?
It is thus unthinkable that educators should find themselves alone in
their search for new forms of education. They have no chance of
succeeding unless, from the outset, they establish a strong, living
alliance with all those responsible for building towns and houses, that
is to say, with political and administrative authorities, town planners,
architects, builders, etc. Inversely, and for the same reasons, is it not
vital for these people who are concerned with building to co=operate
with and be constantly available to all those who can tell them about
the needs (continuing and/or peculiar to our times) of individuals,
groups and societies? This is certainly one of the most patent =

manifestations of the indivisible nature of efforts to civilise the world.

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CONVERSATION WITH THE

--1
Q. Amongst the short-term of objectives of a lifelong education policy,
you propov measures to develop adult education structures. Why give
preference to adults?
A. Because adult edikation, seen in the context [Link] education,
is the 'locomotive'.

There, are several things to explain this. First of all, ,ve can point to
the fact that reason and common sense do not make any headway
through their own merits. History shows, for example, that what has
brought about desirable progress in status of workers, women and
:-lung people is not reason but the impatience and revolt of those
concerned. A child at school may feel ill at ease or even unhappy. He
can express his uneasiness by making a nuisance of himself but he is
not equipped to rebel because he has not had the adult's experience of
independence. Children do not themselves think h6w education should
be improved. The ones who do this are the adults. Adult education
would therefore apperr to be adecisive factor for the-maturation of
the whole "process..
Another thing is that modern educational theory`stresses the idea of
independence and of teaching pupils to be self-reliant. The idea is not a
new one, of course, but it has the virtue of providing some solution to
the problem of the present-day clash of ideologies which is leaving
individuals and communities alike with no firm ground to stand on.
gow, to be independent is to be an adult. The true subject of education
is also the adult. For the educational dialogue can only be initiated on
the basis of questions arising out of experience of life (e.g. professional,
family and social life). Children, on the 'other hand, have education
thrust upon them, at least in our present system where education does
not represent the answers to any interrogation.
With regard to the cost of the nation's educational investments,
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adult education is a way of recovering part of these non-productive
investments. For in so far as the selection system forces out people who
have nevertheless been educated, retrieving them as adults compensates
for the amount spent on them while they were at school.
Lastly, in a more general way, education is going further and further
beyond its function of transmitting the values of a society: As a means
of production, human faculties or in other words the general level of
eduCation play just as important a part as any other form of capital.
This is the context in which adult education fulfils one of its main
roles. Another thing is that it brings quicker returns than school
education since it makes it possible to equip the most active and
go-ahead people in a district or region to become [Link] of
development.

Q. You say that lifelong educetion can help to remedy one of the most
I

critical situations modern society that arising out of the generation

gap. How, can Ii -long education contribute' here?
A. It is qUite obvious that not all the problems involved in the present
crisis in the relations between young people and adults can be solved by
educational means. For example, the resentment of the system shown_
by students is mainly due to lack of confidence in their career ,
prospects. It is a problem of investment, of the organisation of labour
and, in the last resort, of social structures and the political regime. This
amounts, in fact, to a series. of political measurei;but_they are not
foreign to education since they must be inspired by a conception-of
mankind and the establishment of structures which make access to
higher forms of cultural life possible and 'easy.
But these relations will develop in different ways and in a new style.
if the spirit of lifelong education spreads among adults.
. .No one will deny the necessity for the regular transmission of
knowledge and experienCe from the adult,world to the young. You
cannot re-invent everything with every generation, but if this
knowledge and experience are to remain transmittable, there must be
a new mode of communication. No adult message will henceforth be
accepted if it is conveyed in an authoritarian fashion, as a truth deriving
its strength from the superior position of one person in relation to
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the other, whether father, teacher or official. If, however, the elder
(whoever he may be) places himself on the same footing as the younger,
if his sole desire is to engage with him in the joint pursuit of knowledge,
then all communication becomes possible. The adoption of a scientific
approach and the sincere and frank acceptance of the relativity of
judgements and opinions can alone lead to reconciliation and real
communication between people of different ages. Moreover, what I
feel to be true of the youth-adult relationship might be equally true of
communication between all categories of human beings whose
relationship is that of dominant-dominated, e.g. mend and women, men
of different races, or developed and developing countries. As for the
young, they might ponder the relativity of their situation and the fact
that youth is a temporary state which must, of course, be lived to the
full and without reservation, but that the normal term of this
exceptional period of life is adulthood, and that to become adult in the
full sense is an aim for which it is worth striving with all the fire and
resolve they can command.

Q. You make lifelong education a prerequisite for the democratic

development of society. How do you explain this?
A. It is because it is the instrument of equality. For the desire for
equality is a deep- rooted-instinct in most men. Willy-nilly and whether
he be aware of it or not, every man bears the burdens of the whole
human race and when he finds himself belittled, despised or humiliated
by reason of his status, the whole human race is stricken through him
and protests and demands the restoration of his dignity. This, of course,
is a demand for justice, but the attempt to establish equality leads far
beyond that. It aims at nothing less than creating or re-creating the
conditions in which we are or become `fellow -men'. I see no needto go
into the role of the capitalist system here. Through the interplay of is
forces and the effects of its contradictions, it has done a great deal to
destroy this human 'fellow-04'. We have all become enemies. Thanks
to the liw of competition between individuals, different, circles, clans
and classes, men no longer recognise themselves in the destiny of their
fellow-men.
The ways in which modern man is trying to restore this ruined
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fellowship are many and varied', and largely. complementary. Through
improved organisation of labour, increased productivity, rational
planning and technical innovations, industrial society is steadily adding
to the resources which enable it to lessen the gap between the living
conditions of the privileged and the under-privileged. Every year, there
are fewer and fewer people condemned by poverty to live at starvation
level.
The same can be said of the beneficial effects (from the point of
view of equality, practical justice and the re-creation of conditions for
the recognition of our 'fellow-men') of the various aspects of social
demands. In its strong desire for a better and in its instinctive or
conscious will to destroy capitalism's harmful effects, the working class
is striving for the overall goo'd of mankind.
But this action at the level of production and distribution, however
necessary and fraught with cultural values it may be, fosters an
illusion which is to believe that it will suffice for the re-establishment
of a human order. It is, in fact, only one of the two keys to the
solution. The second key is education. Education is called upon to play
a part in modern society which is unparalleled in any earlier period. It
would seem that-up till now, education has existed in a pre-historic
state and is only now assuming its historic r51e, in that man, through
new conceptions and in new ways, is destined to become the priority
subject of his own education and no longer, as in the past, to have
education thrust upon him. Education has, of course, already acted as a
very powerful equaliser in the past. Everyone knows what the school
has done not only to teach the rudiments (and more) but to instil into
every indiv'dual common points of reference and the myths and
mythologies on which a national community is based.
It has nevertheless contributed just as forcibly towards destroying
the conditions for the recognition of our `fellow-men'. It has
institutionalised differences between us. It has established competition
as the law governing relations between people. In the school system,
each pupil is put on a particular rung of a ladder above one ,category of
pupils and below another. At school (if one discounts the regulatory
and corrective effect of natural affinities) everyone is already heading
towards a state of hostility.
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 This hostility is strengthened by the tyranny of-the models used for
instruction and the moulding of minds. These models, inherited from
bygone agei, are doubly oppressive. First of all they have
out over the centuries and their rightness has never really been
questioned. Secondly, they are based on a truncated idea of human
nature which includes only the intellectual (or rather cognitive) aspect
of the individual and disregards the other aspects (or harmonic
components). Those who are adapted to these models by temperament
and natural bent do not suffer unduly from them. They see in the
approved curricula and methods and extension, a mirror, as it were, of
their own personality. Since this adaptation gives them a natural
superiority in academic competition, these are the ones who, through
the workings of elimination and competition, as a rule become the
masters of the system and the callers of the tune. The rest, whose
characters are formed and assert themselves in other ways, are relegated
to the fringe. This leads to lack of balance, tensions and failures. It is
one of the factors which most assuredly increases inequality in our
society, all the more so in that it goes under the glittering guise of
merit.
In lifelong education, on the other hand, everyone finds his own
road to development since-it offers a series of different kinds of
education and training which cater for each one's individuality,
originality and calling.
Here we come back to what I said to start with. In a modern society",
where poverty is no longer oppressive and where the material
conditions of life are tending to become uniform, lifelong education
may be regarded as the instrument of true equality.
As the notion of lifelong education takes root and influences
structur and institutions, the artificial differences between men will
ter,d to disappear, yielding place to the real difference which is what
distinguishes one man from another, each having his own logic, his
unmistakable originality and his particular calling to follow. When an
individual no longer sees the success of another as preventing his own
success, then a great barrier to communication will have been lifted.
Through lifelong education, man's natural aggressiveness will find its
normal outlet. The aim of such education is not to incite the individual
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to destroy his `rival' but to carry on the war which every man must
wage in hmselfand with himself. Lifelong education is an
[Link] to everyone to fight a never-ending battle against
prejudic ); ready-made ideas, dead conventions, stereotypes [Link]
successive crystallisations of existence. In this, such education comes
uncommonly close to life, following its rhythms, heeding its lessons and
blazing its trails. .

As an individual frees himself from false competition, he comes to

rely on his refound fellow-man who has the same problems as himself,
in whom he recognises the same humanity and who has the same aims
in life. Here true equality, the specific equality of man's estate,
coincides with true freedom or rather the Proceis of liberation whereby
man, throughout his life, gets to know himself, provided he is not
afraid to face the truth as he sees it, and has the necessary strength,
which he will draw mainly from exchange and alliance with his
fellow-men.

Q. Do you not think that lifelong education is a luxury which

developing countries cannot afford?
A. We have often heard this said in the Third World. Those in charge of
education in those countries are aware of the ever-increasing burden of
education on the national economy. In many cases, expenditure has
reached a ceiling beyond which it is impossible to go without
endangering financial equilibrium and the normal functioning of the
economy. When we tlk to them of lifelong education, the spectre of
fresh expenditure immediately looms before their eyes. It is easy to
understand why they are not very keen.
But this fear, which appears justified at first sight, is unfounded
when examined more closely. For what really is the point at issue? Not
necessarily to add new pieces to a pre-existing whole, but to bring order
out of chaos. These people in charge are the first to admit that their
schools and universities by no means meet their people's real needs
today. In many cases and in many respects, educationin its present
forms is a hindrance to development. If lifelong education intimates
and reflects a desire to adapt education to situations and resources,
then there is no reason for them to be afraid of it; on the contrary, they
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should draw inspiration from this concept and give priority to its
application in practice. Is it not even more vital for societies of this
type to avoid the ruinous waste caused by the traditional system? The
luxury that these countries cannot afford is precisely to invest in
training and educating a proportion of the population, only to see
those who have been educated reverting to ignorance or incompetence.

Q. Then yon would like adults in developing countries to go back to

school?
A. Not at all. \That is where the mistake, the misinterpretation, lies. It
is not even certain that schools in their present-form should be
maintained forl,children. But we must find new ways, adapted to local
conditions, in order to guarantee the constant dissemination of essential
notions and the acquisition of techniques and know-how. Lifelong
education therefore means here as elsewhere an attempt at
coherence, a mobilisation of available resources and manpower and
new lines of/thought in education.

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