Education is an activity that occasions both hope and despair, people think that it will improve their life chances and so demand more of it. This encourages politicians to give what they call priority to education; they take initiatives and spend our money on them. Then despair sets in. Neither Government nor the people can give up the hope, so they seek to keep despair at bay by insisting that education be reformed. A period of febrile activity ensues. This lexicon is addressed to learners of all ages and in all their varied circumstances, in the hope that it will goad them into thinking differently about what education might offer them. It is easy to be cynical about a formal education system, but it is hard to be cynical enough.

Author Biography

Tyrrell Burgess was Emeritus Professor in the Philosophy of Social Institutions at the University of East London, UK.