The evolution of human beings over perhaps the last several million years，from a few scattered African apes into the billions of modern primates that populate the globe today，had to include the transmission of behaviors from older to younger individuals for the latter’s benefit. These behaviors included knowledge as well as skills，e.g.，knowledge of what to eat and where to find it，of dangerous predators and how to avoid them，of relationships and status within the group and how to use them. Many of these behaviors remain observable today in interactions of young children with slightly older ones，as well as among the young of other social primates such as baboons. They are essentially educational methods still extant in varying degrees in modern societies. But as of about two hundred years ago，with the development of industrial processes，of the factory and ever-more sophisti-cated technology，education has evolved into interlocking economic as well as social enterprises whose main common purposes appear to be，for themselves，growth，and for the individuals they produce，employment. These objectives appear to have elicited far more consensus than the methods advocated for their achievement.