(CZ) Na okraj sporů o pojetí jedince a povahu společnosti
(EN) On the debate about the nature of individual and society

This essay takes two ideas from prepared educational documents (School Bill and the so called White Book on Education): the proposal to reduce the number of eight (and six) years high schools dividing the Czech comprehensive school during the nineties, and the inclusion of educational programmes and curricula for handicapped pupils into the comprehensive schools. Debates about these issues reveal them as important signs of a more essential matter: the nature of the individual and the society. The author puts two questions: what are the functions of basic, comprehensive education, and if the process of learning, of outcomes of mental development, and the pupil’s gifts as well could be seen as purely individual. Based on the results of the cultural psychology the answer can be as follows: first, the main function of the basic education is to strenghten the social link between very different individuals, members of the culture (society) shared by them. Second, the abilities, gifts, motives, interests and performances of individual pupils have a profoundly cultural nature - it means they have high degree of plasticity, are changeable and can be influenced. Thus, the author points out that the intention of school decision makers must be highly appreciated.