Anyone reading the foregoing papers might easily conclude that they represent the result of careful planning and coordination by the organizers of the symposium. That is not the case. It was with surprise and delight that we discovered on the morning of the symposium the extent to which common problems and themes pervaded the five papers. This spontaneous appearance of shared concerns provokes two observations in particular: first, it once again indicates the extent to which each generation, in Beard's phrase, writes history anew according to the questions uppermost in its mind. Second, it suggests some of the ways in which the “new” history of education will differ, and improve upon, the “old” through an expansion of the concept of education beyond schooling to the very environment itself and through a clinical dissection of reform motives, processes, and results.