Arendt’s educational writings

The two following chapters are not to be read as an extended and systematic reading of Arendt’s essays on education, ¹ ‘Reflections on Little Rock’ ² and ‘The Crisis in Education,’ even if on the surface they might appear to be just that. Instead, as proposed by the method of pearl diving, they represent a reconstructive endeavour. ³ I essentially use the essays as a form of conversation partner in the construction of a specific educational theory, or rather a theory of schooling as an essentially inclusive activity. There are, however, so many unanswered questions in regard to the essays that they cannot be presented without involving both their background and some of the subsequent interpretations. This also means that I have had to refrain from an extensive and systematic reading on two accounts, the first being the one mentioned above, the other that I have had to read ‘The Crisis in Education’ in two different ways. The first reading engages with the essay in connection with ‘Reflections’ and in light of Arendt’s separation of education and the political, thus laying the ground for an anti-instrumental foundation for the activity of schooling, while the second reading is carried out in the light of Arendt’s concept of plurality, establishing the collectivity of the activity of schooling and highlighting the importance of understanding and common sense. This first chapter presents Arendt’s educational writings and the reception of them with an emphasis, as mentioned, on her separation of education and the political, while the subsequent chapter on what schooling is contains the second reading of ‘The Crisis in Education.’