The visions we have recounted and discussed in the foregoing chapters are not to be taken as finalities. They are intended, rather, as exemplars of the way educational programs might best be conceived, exhibiting various attempts to weave authentic strands of our heritage into the growing fabric of our children's learning. Such attempts must continually be made if our educational efforts are not to relapse into superficiality, incoherence, or rote. We must try again and again to meet the perennial challenge, set us by the changing contexts of our educational efforts, to clarify the purposes that ought to animate such efforts and the principles embodied in our consequent practice. In sum, the visions of others we have considered here should spur us to undertake the ever-present task of educational envisioning in our own circumstances, and by our own lights.

This continued work of envisioning cannot be expected to culminate in a uniform outcome. As is illustrated by the array of visions in the preceding pages, this work yields not one vision but many. Pluralism is thus the rule, not the exception. But pluralism does not necessitate an acceptance of all the visions resulting from reflection, nor does it sanction a relativism that allows us to choose just any vision we like. Each of us needs to work out the principles, purposes, and practices that commend themselves to us as most sound and persuasive, while according the respect due to others who have, sharing the same task, followed a different path.