The paper has established and tackled the two meanings of ‘challenge’ and ‘reversal’ in order to examine the real sense of progress as to whether or not the so-called progressive movement and education can really contribute to the progress of mankind. The former, as already examined, breaks down to three as such ‘backward’, ‘outward’ and ‘inward’. Particularly the outward sense goes to the one of social reform. The paper has also tried to reckon the concept of child and the child-centred education in the light of 'the start from the child' suggested by the Plowden Report. The six agendas taken under this have been minutely examined so that they cannot be consistent with its own ideal but reversed. The latter is concerned on the reversal of thinking to advance the mankind and civilization. For this, the paper has tackled the four main concepts such as perversion, subversion, inversion, and conversion. As a result of examination shown, the reversals implying perversion and subversion can and have contribute to the progress of mankind, but inversion can be seen as succession rather than progress and conversion cannot be so much progress as conservative. Conclusively the real progress in the sense of ‘betterment’ is to be re-considered under the idea of reversal of thinking but cannot reckoned under the social reform from the idea of challenge which can give rise to the destructive totalitarianism. Simply because the idea of ‘betterment’ is to be taken seriously in the social and personal levels.