Abstract
This critical essay on the contemporary conception of lifelong learning draws attention to the fact that the present concept of lifelong learning is not a novelty. It reflects upon the shifts in meaning of notions such as education, educational objectives and cultivation in an era which often puts praxis before theory, and in which the emphasis on performance and effectiveness is many a time accompanied by blindness to the meaning of contemplation and profound thought.
The essay attends to the ideological frameworks in which the contemporary conception of a life-long learning is embedded. Furthermore, it ponders upon the extend to which school encourages (self-) education, and to which it is under an ideological pressure promoting practicality and "usability" of school erudition.