The variable assessments of the problem called «school and society» in Russia of the second half of the 19th – the early 20th centuries are defi ned in the publication, the basic ideas of formation of the educational ideal of general secondary education, topical for both pre-revolutionary period and the present, are considered. Analysis and generalisation of variable approaches to problems of formation of ideal of general secondary education, discussions about upbringing – priority of a person or a specialist – are carried out by the authors. The content of the article refl ects the results of theoretical and practical research, related to the analysis of the works of the leading pedagogues of the period under study (Pavel Blonsky, Vasiliy Vakhterov, Pyotr Kapterev, Nikolay Kareyev, Dmitry Pisarev, Nikolay Pirogov, Vladimir Stoyunin, Leo Tolstoy, Nikolay Chernyshevsky) on singling out the ideas which infl uences the ideal of the period of study. We will list among them: the opportunity to rebuild society through the restructuring of the school; the school lag from the demands of society, i.e., from
life; contradictions that arise between public and individual (personal) educational requests; identifi cation of priorities for the interests of the individual. The presented ideas allow to trace continuity with modern education and with their refl ection
in modern interpretation of «educational ideal.» The content of the publication may primarily be of interest to teachers of general education organisations, as well as to pedagogues-researchers who work on problems of the history of pedagogy in
the system of general secondary education of the period under study.