It seems that the practice of intellectuals as carried by the intellectually trained, namely abstract analytical skill, has become constitutive of the modern high technology society. In the world of work, for example, flexible skill formation through the acquisition of generic skills has come to be more important than knowing anything in particular. Information has come to be valued more than knowledge. The increasing use of computers and robotics has altered the workplace and the kind of education needed by people for this new workplace. The need for an efficient and productive workforce has meant that education must be turned to meeting economic needs more. Intellectual culture, then, especially as expressed by scientific intellectuals has become closely allied to the forces of production. Now Catholic schools have claimed a form of distinctiveness from the state system based on a religious education program and more especially a Christian ethos that permeates its structures. If however, they absorb the new emphases, these, coupled with internal tensions already present in Catholic education, could undermine the very basis of this distinctiveness. The question to be examined becomes, then, whether or not Catholic schools in particular and education in general can find a practice that challenges the dominance of a narrow form of intellectual technique.