AIMS Richard S. Peters's illuminating conception of as initiation is among the leading ideas of contemporary philosophy of education. A new collection of essays, Reading R.S. Peters Today: Analysis, Ethics, and the Aims of Education, 1 has called attention to its contemporary relevance. After summarizing Peters's concep- tion, I propose a major reconstruction, drawing on the distinction between general initiation, exemplified by obligatory tribal initiation rites at puberty, and particular initiations exemplified by voluntary rites of admission to fraternities or occupational guilds, for example. Peters's conception involves initiations to particular cultural practices. My reconstruction extends the idea to general initiation, firmly connecting as initiation to rites of passage to adulthood. EDUCATION AS INITIATION In developing the idea of as initiation Peters aimed to resolve long- standing conflicts between conservative notions of as cultural transmis- sion (the shaping or molding metaphor), and progressive notions of as cultural regeneration (the growth metaphor). 2 Initiation was offered as a middle ground. In Ethics and Education, Peters develops the idea in two stages. Chapter 1, offers a conceptual analysis with three conditions: to count as education some- thing must (i) possess intrinsic value; (ii) conduce to knowledge, understanding, and the development of cognitive perspectives; (iii) not engage learners involuntarily or unwittingly. Chapter 2, then, puts forth as initiation as a synthetic sketch fleshing out the analysis. Initiation for Peters indicates learners and teachers joined in gaining knowledge, understanding, and active cognitive perspectives. To be an initiate in an activity is to know its traditions and rules, to understand its point, and to be able to participate as a social insider; initiates share, and care about, the values inherent in the activities. These two components — the conceptual analysis and the initiation metaphor — are closely linked: the initiation metaphor concretely reveals what is stated more abstractly in the analysis. I now turn to the main lines of criticism against his conception of as initiation.