When discussing what schools should teach, questions of both content and process must be addressed. Although many observers believe that a fixed content should be learned, it is impossible to separate content and process. In the process of education, experiences build on each other. This fact should cause educators to question the continuities between the experience and content of preschools and primary schools, middle schools and high schools, which currently tend to be either nonexistent or unknown. An understanding about continuities helps educators understand what is lost when curriculum is viewed narrowly, in terms of isolated, disconnected studies. Schools must also be more attentive to students' inclinations, strengths, and values--what they truly care about. An education that builds bridges, that expands a child's potential for independence, is an empowering education. Another way to conceptualize continuities and bridges is to consider that the cultivation of imagination should be the chief aim in education. A school committed to supporting "the having of wonderful ideas" is establishing for itself the goal of getting all young people as close as possible to their upper limits of learning potentialities. If children are to be educated rather than merely schooled, purposes have to be given further attention. Purposes are the dimension of the discourse about content and process, what students should know, understand, and believe possible, that is missing. (MM)