In the «new society» which is being formed in a permanent and accelerated manner,
there exists a series of problems that affect the economical, juridical, polítical, social,
religious, educational and technical aspects of the world. We do not howeVer always find
«answers» or «solutions» while considering each one of these aspects. Significantly, the
very topic of «schooling» is affected by a «silent» revolutionary process based upon
an ideological view which on a middle-term basis -which nontheless suggests short-term
incidences- results in an «abduction» of the individual personality of the human being,
as well as «pressure» in favor of particular models of a specific society. ,
On the other band, modem societies are ' found to be indifferent to, or lacking of
transcendental ethical values, with religious essences being replacer by rationalistic
constructions of a Humanism which does not find itself firmIy anchored by moral roots.
For this reason, precisely, the family -at least so far- constitutes the most positive
factor in the face of these borderlíne situations found in the new society. The f8miIy in
itself constitutes a School. Curiously enough, in Third-world countries, on a pedagogical
level the family is called upon -sought- to find anew its proper place, since even
the finest techniques or pedagogical systems,. or the most refined school plan, always
find the urgency or necessity for that educative redoubt, the ,family, precisely as the
foundation where . the first values or virtues which later will hace to be exercised with
sufficience in society are placed. All this, naturally, far from the phenomena of rupture,
crisis, or familial or juveni1e emancipation.
Three questions seem to us to be of fundamentalimportance. W hat do we wisb
the new society to be like? WhtJt will tbe new society actually be like? Why and what
fo, this newsociety? These questions, in one way or another -regardless of whether
we are dealing with a cosmological, anthropological or theocentric vision of Man anP
society- have been answered historically. J'he great' philosophers, from Plato to Marx,
from Thomas Aquinas to Montesquieu or Hegel, from Saint Augustine to Martin
Luther, have been, in a true sense or at least through motivation, pedagogues. The
matter rests in the fact that now concrete educational approaches have been perturbed
by polítical or ideological leanings, or are caukht up in the whirlwind impulsed by the
technological and business world, as processes of socialization, mechanization or of
productivity .
If the answers to the topic of the School were to come from society itself -parents,
students and teachers- the difficUlties would be reduced, since a free and responsable
«co-participation», free from partisan meddlings, would stiniulate , energies and risks.
In this sense, '«eduCational commwiities», in the broadest meaning of the term, are
one of the most appreciated hopes facing the new society.
