The two essays contained in this discussion paper examine means for determining alternatives to formal education. "The Strategic Uses of Comparative Learning Environments" assumes that different environments are conducive to accomplishing different goals. In the future there is a need to find out more about the structural properties and construction of learning environments and to achieve a better fit between educational means and ends. Eight structural elements that affect learning environments are listed: the age mix and social composition of the adults and children; the nature of the reward structure; the proximity of the situation to action, meaningful work, use, and normal living; the timing of the experience with respect to employment; abstract versus concrete content; and the duration of relationships. "Systemic Capacity as a Problem in the Design of Alternatives to Formal Education" presents a hypothetical schooling model made up of the "givens" of schooling. These givens include evaluation, schooling as means rather than end, certification, time-performance accounting, literacy, content specificity, pedagogical transactions, and demand for an acculturating mechanism. The systemic capacity, or range of things that the learning environment can do, is gauged by possible variations in these givens. A question list is included to form the backbone of a correlation of structure and function within the idea of systemic capacity. (JH)