In public policy and private management, America hungers for new ideas. Of the new ideas that have percolated into the agenda of public debate in recent days, I can think of none more provocative, more innovative, or more important than Lew Perelman's vision of the "learning enterprise." Its central concept is a stirring challenge to conventional Learning is the key capital-forming industry of the postindustrial economy.
...[T]his is a milestone statement in the national debate swirling about work and learning, and about education and the economy. I believe Perelman's concept of the learning enterprise will force a basic change in the terms of this debate. His report is destined to be controversial. But the new ideas it offers are just what America needs today.