The concept of an educational cultural-semiotic and private environment for the life of a developing person is formulated, focused on new forms of education in the context of a change in the main pedagogical paradigm and changes, which the author calls “a quiet revolution in education”. The principles of the traditional and new paradigm of education are briefly characterized. The question is raised about the reality, which will make it possible to comprehend and interconnect the individual principles of the new paradigm. The author describes the image of culture that he developed in the course of many years of cultural research and helped him see a new reality. But he called this reality not culture, but environment. The characteristics of such an environment are indicated, two levels of its description are distinguished — abstract (as a reality) and more specific (ontological). The latter is illustrated on the material of the problems of teaching mathematics. In conclusion, criteria are discussed that allow for the demarcation of competencies for new types of education.