Proponents of faculty psychology (mental or formal discipline) maintained that rig- orous subjects disciplined the mind; thus such education was generally transferable. Some of the essentialists have held that education is the storing of data-computer-fashion- for use at a later date when the occasion arises. Unfortunately, disuse sets in; we forget, and when we need to retrieve the supposedly stored data, we find that they have slipped person- jo competence away.