This article begins by criticising the expression "polytechnic formation" widely used, above all in the 1990's, by Marxist Brazilian educators. It defends the thesis that human language is always an historical expression which reveals intentions and practical interests and is, therefore, an essential instrument for achieving hegemony. In this sense, "polytechnic formation" expresses an historically outdated theoretical position. In the second part of the article, the text explains that the Marxist proposal for the formation of workers is contained in the complete Marxian formula of "intellectual, physical and technological instruction". This formula does not permit the selection of one or another element as its structuring category. Finally, it expounds the Gramscian thesis on the unitary school, according to which the anthropological category of the historical liberty of all men is the unitary foundation of the very Marxian formula.
polytechnic formation; formation of workers; unitary school