Abstract

The aim of this paper is to compare two models of education. The first is the instrumental model which perceives education as a process of preparing students for future professional life. The second one perceives education as a way to build our individuality. The instrumental and economical model became very popular in the second half of the 20th century and still strengthens its position. The second model sees itself as a continuation of long European history of philosophy of education and serves as the counterbalance to the instrumental model. In the paper it will be argued that the second (classical) model of education is more useful for the development of Western liberal democracies while the first one perceives an individual to a client and replases the development of a culture to an economic growth. It will be argued that the economic model omits the nature of our cultural identity and misinterprets integral goals of the process of education.