System theory defines the life course (Lebenslauf) as the medium of education. It is a medium, because the educator sees it as a potential for intervention, impressing pedagogically acceptable forms onto it. Yet the single individuals who are educated are autonomous observers who are exposed to an immense quantity of possible configurations of their lives. This raises a first question: how can education legitimate intentions and motivate pupils to accept the forms with which they collaborate, but which they have not chosen for themselves? A further question is raised by the fact that the life course does not coincide with the ‘career’ that each individual constructs for himself during his lifetime, when he is oriented towards roles in organisational terms (such as jobs) or that are in any case external to the system of education. This paper proposes the hypothesis that the life course and the career are coupled to each other by means of educational selection (certificates and qualifications). While this increases the potential available to the individual, it also increases uncertainty, the burden of decision-making and related risks. One skill that could be developed during education is the ability to manage this potential for combinations.

系统理论定义了生命历程（Lebenslauf）作为教育媒介。它是一种媒介，因为教育者将其视为一种潜在的干预手段，从而将教育学上可接受的形式铭刻在其上。然而，受过教育的单身人士是自主的观察者，他们面对着生活中可能的大量可能配置。这就提出了第一个问题：如何教育合理的意图并激励学生接受与他们合作但自己没有选择的形式？人生的过程与每个人一生为自己构筑的“职业”并不吻合，这是一个进一步的问题，即当他以组织术语（例如工作）为角色时，或者无论如何都是这样。在教育体系之外。本文提出了一个假设，即生活历程和职业通过教育选择（证书和资格）相互联系。虽然这增加了个人可用的潜力，但也增加了不确定性，决策负担和相关风险。在教育期间可以开发的一项技能是管理这种组合潜力的能力。