Pedagogical ideals differ and inform education differently. They do so in many ways since they draw from a wide spectrum of cultural and interpretive material. The construction of ideals or the promotion of existing ones can affect, modify, or alter one's conceptions of what counts as all-round learning, self-realised, active learner, and effective school community. In this article, the author discusses what changes in people's philosophical understanding of the self and its relation to the Other and the community can radicalise the constructions of school models and orient them to more humane and less antagonistic educational policy and planning. Since the focus is on idealisations rather than application and measures, the article debates the theoretical dimension of existing ideals. The author defends the relevance of postmodernism to pedagogical discussions of subjectivity and community and shows how this relevance affects in turn the renegotiation of traditional educational ideals. After exploring the constellation "postmodernism, subjectivity vs community, and educational ideals", the author focuses on the concept of symmetrical reciprocity, which she proposes as an ontological-relational basis of a democratic educational ideal of care. (Contains 19 notes.)