Examines various views of the child, focusing on postmodern subjectivity, discussing: the child as "valuable stranger" and reason's irrational core; the child and the dialect of western reason; and the child, the postmodern subject, and education. It concludes that school as an adult-child intentional community is potentially a space where adult-child dialogue results as much in the re-imagining of adulthood as in the re-imagining of childhood. (SM)