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Experimentum Scholae: The World Once More … But Not (Yet) Finished

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σχολή (Greek: scholè): free time, rest, delay, study, discussion, lecture, school, school building

Abstract

Inspired by Hannah Arendt, this contribution offers an exercise of thought as an attempt to distil anew the original spirit of what education means. It tries to articulate the event or happening that the word names, the experiences in which this happening manifests itself and the (material) forms that constitute it or make it find/take (its) place. Starting from the meaning of scholè as ‘free time’ or ‘undestined and unfinished time’ it further explores scholè as the time of attention which is the time of the regard for the world, of being present to it (or being in its presence), attending it, a time of delivery to the experience of the world, of exposure and effacing social subjectivities and orientations, a time filled with encounters. Education, then, relates to forms of profanation, suspension and attention and can be articulated as the art (the doing) and technology that makes scholè happen.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratory for Education and Society, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, University Leuven, Vesaliusstraat 2, 3000, Leuven, Belgium

    Jan Masschelein

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  1. Jan Masschelein
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Correspondence to Jan Masschelein.

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This essay could not have been written without Maarten Simons, who is to be seen in a true way and in the full sense as co-author.

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Masschelein, J. Experimentum Scholae: The World Once More … But Not (Yet) Finished. Stud Philos Educ 30, 529–535 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11217-011-9257-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11217-011-9257-4

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