This article focuses on a central aspect of the on-going reconciliation between education and organization theory: the concept of organizational learning. Organizational learning means the creation, and further development of, practical knowledge in organizations: the theory-in-use of organizations. This article compares the transformation of organizational knowledge in two organizations in the USA and Germany (one example from the 1930s, another from the 1990s) and in three different school models in Germany between the 1970s and the 1990s. According to the main thesis of the article, organizations, companies and schools use ritual knowledge from outside contexts for processes of organizational learning. The authors understand ritual knowledge as practical knowledge, imparted and acquired by action. During the process of organizational learning, ritual knowledge merges with existing traditions of organizational knowledge and transforms into a new theory in use of the organization. This process is shown in the comparison of breakfast and morning rituals in schools and companies.