If we could solve the problem of general education, we could confidently strike any third world war off the calendar. General education means the whole development of the individual, apart from his occupational training. [...] In this sense general education is the fundamental problem of modern society.

An excerpt from the introduction of 'Mission of the University' by Jose Ortega y Gasset. I picked out the book at random at a library this weekend and it appears to have been published in the mid 1940s. I am not sure how the rest of the book is, but it appears highly interesting.