The aim of the article is to define the content of theoretical ideas about education in the knowledge society in terms of the birth of its social reality. It is shown that the genesis of the concept of education in the knowledge society goes back to the period of 1950-1960s and is due to the emergence of new qualities of an industrial worker that the knowledge worker inherits. In 1957 P. Drucker (1957) formulated an idea of advanced training and in 1968 the principle of continuing education to train the knowledge worker. Their relation to the concept of distributed education by P. Drucker is revealed. It is stated that the key institutions of the knowledge society are university and school established on the principles of research training and related scientific and cognitive continuity. The concept of dynamic competence is defined; the relationship of creative learning with the reality of the knowledge society is shown. The analysis of fundamental contradictions of education in the knowledge society is given.