Education of the future

Well, I want to start out by saying that I was somewhat disappointed by the ending. I was waiting for this big "ah hah" moment to occur with regards to Henry Adams' education, yet their wasn't one. Or maybe their was, I just missed it between the science and history lesson he provided within his last chapters. I think the "education" that he speaks of throughout this book is not what I perceived in the beginning. It's not the education that he learned as a boy or at Harvard, but the education he is discussing means a lot more. One thing I understood is that this education is a constant thing. It is lifes lessons as well as the history that we, and those that have lived before us have been through. His ending was quite blurry to me and he made a bunch of references to various individuals and time periods- yet I didn't fully understand the relevenace of his ramblings. I thought it was interesting how a lot of the predictions he made, looking back from our generation, proved to be true. In order to understand the force, and dynamic he speaks of, we need to take our minds outside of our current time period and understand the period he was living in. I do believe that man and nature work together and have for centuries, something that he touches upon. Without this force, where would we be today? We would not have progressed what so ever, and he incorporated those examples of Rome as well as the other time periods as an example (also- mentions scientific advancement as another example). He was living during an era that was flourishing with a bunch of technological advancements as well as scientific. Furthermore, he touches upon the future. I found this somewhat of a surprise because in the beginning of the book, he is so drawn by the 18th century and he thinks of himself as a boy from that time period; evrything that appealed to him was from that era. However, in the end he is more focused on the future. He doesn't seem to be stuck in that old century anymore- I could be wrong though because we did not read other parts. However, this future that he speaks of - he speaks of it in a historical context. He wishes he could live one day in the future with some of his fellow friends that have passed, possibly to see the advancements that that generation would have produced. In sum, I think he was presenting a message that each generation advances, and he speculates what will happen in the future, and if those in the future will be able to keep up on the same level. Meanwhile, will the future generation make the same mistakes? History does have a way of repeating itself, and can we truly go forward without looking back? (After trying to re-read these final chapters, I am still completely and utterly baffled).