Education is society’s cultural reproductive system. By education, society reproduces itself, passing on its main characteristics to the next generation. Just as with genetics, however, the process is complicated, being influenced by philosophical, political, economic and social forces acting on the mechanism.
The result is that each generation is different from that from which it strong yet preserves a family likeness that, in the short-term, is unmistakable in this sense; it is education that keeps society alive.