Is the most important function of education to provide students with basic skills and useful knowledge in order to eventually become employable? In many parts of the world knowledge league tables and policy documents informs us this is the case. As the question on what should form the educational content seems to be answered, teachers can concentrate on how they should teach; researchers can concentrate on what method is the most effective. In the current rhetoric, however, many vital pedagogical issues (...) have been placed in the background and the aesthetic subjects are downgraded. These tendencies worried Frede V. Nielsen who stated that didactic studies and philosophical inquiries yet again are needed to explore and give substance to the content dimension. Nielsen’s writings on didactics form the basis for this essay, where we highlight issues of which perspectives and dilemmas could be placed on a critical, philosophical didactic study agenda. The starting point is the field of tension between the what and the why of education. (shrink)