VALUE FORMATION AND EDUCATION Accomplishment by an individual in
any field of activity depends on the level of skill which the
person has acquired. Skill converts physical energy into useful
productive force for achievement. Before the advent of public
education and vocational training, individual skills were
limited to what could be acquired from the family, by long
apprenticeship and through personal experience. Opportunities
for the individual were similarly restricted by the limited
access to skills through these means. The formalization of
curricula enabled society to impart much higher levels of skill
to many more people (e.g. mechanics, engineering, medicine,
etc.) thereby geometrically increasing the opportunities for
individual accomplishment and the general social progress.
Accomplishment in any field also depends on the attitudes,
understanding, decisiveness and values with which the individual
acts. The simple act of writing depends not only on the physical
skill for forming letters and words, but