Scheffler, 1985, p. 94). Meanwhile, a contemporary misapplication of the notion of human potential, not as something that is a function of multivaried cultural and social influences, but as something that is available to each and all, waiting only to be realized, has had the effect of devaluing the real benefits of learning and blurring the distinction between mere skill-specific training and education and understanding as aspects of the whole of human experience. The result is that education is conceived in terms of teaching and scope and content of a given curriculum, whether of techniques or according to specified curricula, rather than in terms of learning.
The differences of meaning may be subtle and imprecise, but they are nevertheless--or for that very reason--significant, and are at the heart of satisfaction or dissatisfaction with a given educational program. They explain in part the preoccupation with getting "back to basics" in education, and the dissatisfaction with the apparent achievement failures among so many students, in con
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