Dilemmas of Cultural Transmission

Abstract

The fundamental problem of the 21 st century is that in the modern civilization the transmission of values is not stable. There is nothing, except for the natural sense of justice and some legal traditions, which would exercise selective power on social behavior. At a critical time in 1949 Albert Szent-Györgyi drew the attention to the fact that "education is one of the most important activities of mankind." Why do they question this in the 21 st century? We might assume that the reason is basically the loss of values which goes together with the successes reached through superficial knowledge; as well as the lack of the measure, the morality, the attitude to be followed; the appreciation of the European and typically Hungarian cultural heritages; and cultural transmission. Education science has an important role in the recreation of culture. In the first half of the 20 th century new pedagogical trends appeared and evolved in Europe and the United States. Their comparative evaluation could be helpful at the free choice of high standards.