Both Tolstoy and Goodman expand the idea of education, returning to the Hellenic notion of education as paideia . Education is not seen as distinct from life, but as an engaged preparation for the responsibilities and freedoms of citizenship. Culture seen in this way links radical pedagogy and a libertarian politics, but also does much more. It introduces the conceptual possibilities for action directed towards remaking existing society so that it is a precursor of a free society. Politics thereby changes from oppositional, reactive or ameliorative, and becomes reconstructive.
Culture also becomes a source of strength and sustenance.
Spring's second point for establishing a libertarian education system is that the powers of the educational establishment must be challenged and supplanted. Libertarian ideas for educational reform must deal with the lived realities of schooling, the educational establishment and of contemporary society. For Spring this does not mean modest, incremental change, but breadth of action that would alter nearly every aspect of our lives. He begins with the need to repeal compulsory education laws, followed by the need to reconceive the status of children in this society, giving them independence from unnecessary adult authority. From this one can gather that Spring ties educational reform to the changed status of children and women in this society which, in turn, would ripple throughout society.