Educational writing commonly announces new approaches that lay claim to conforming with children's natural learning and development. Almost invariably such approaches repeat principles that were given a modern form in the 1850s in the writings of Herbert Spencer. His great but unacknowledged influence has discouraged recognition that humans are odd creatures whose natural forms of learning and development are buried under layers of cultural acquisitions. Understanding education requires a richer understanding of our cultural tools. Technical expertise in the tasks of education is wasted unless one understands the cultural tools that shape the proper purposes of educational activity.