A systemic, holistic perspective is used in examining three challenges to the educational community today and in positing the idea of a societal organization of education for meeting these challenges. The problems identified--(1) improvement in the quality of education, (2) provision of life-long learning experiences, and (3) improvement in the quality of life--create a demand on formal education probably impossible to meet under existing conditions. The direction of responses to these challenges, and often the possibility of coming up with a solution, depends upon the view one takes of the problem--e.g., strictly economic, "basics only," alternative schools, etc. A systemic perspective, however, encompasses a macro-system view of education, directed toward identifying its components and interrelationships, thereby clarifying key entities around which the system should be organized. At the center of the system is the individual learner, and around this learner exist various domains facilitating his/her development: (1) the primary social system (family, peers, friends); (2) the formal educational system (various schools); (3) community educational systems (churches, agencies, cultural groups); (4) the communications system (press, TV, radio libraries); (5) the work system (public and private employment); and (6) ad hoc learning systems. A societal-level organization of these domains through informal and formal interorganizational arrangements would result in a manifold increase in educational potential, thus raising the possibility of solutions to existing educational challenges. (MB)