The author defines education as a deliberate, organized attempt to help people to become intelligent and states that "education leads to understanding--it has no more practical purpose." He examines the purposes of education in the past and suggests that its primary goal was to train people for a certain job and position in life; education was seen as a means to achieve national power and prosperity, particularly in totalitarian countries such as the Soviet Union and China. Instructional technology, he states, brings the goal of universal education within reach. He singles out the university as a pivotal factor in educational change; it must become less of a knowledge factory and more of a free and responsible source of criticism for renewal. The increasing proportion of free time and the rapidity of change, he feels, calls for a "learning society" where part-time education is available to everyone throughout his life and learning, fulfillment, and becoming human are an aim; all institutions would be directed to that end. (JY)