In my master’s thesis I am exploring the two-sided relationship between schools and philosophy. At first I try to criticise certain pedagogical axioms and reflect on some self-sustaining theories and practices that persist in educational institutions because of the continuous nature of said institutions. I discuss the work of Kieran Egan and his critique of progressivism and pedagogical error, as well as his suggestions in the form of developing cognitive tools, the five different ways of understanding, and the importance of the cultural aspect of cognitive development. I try to use his theory to outline a few suggestions on how to improve the process of teaching. I then criticize the existing educational system with the help of Umberto Galimberti, whom I also criticise myself using the phenomenon of “juvenoia” and the original thought of Friedrich Nietzsche. I try to find a way of addressing the youth’s distress without intergenerational moralisation and instead focus on the legitimacy of their existential experiences. I highlight a similar issue with the help of Paulo Freire and his pedagogy of the oppressed, which stresses the societal and class-related aspects of the educational system and its role in maintaining repressive structures, as well as trying to call attention to the emancipatory potential of education. By exposing school as an ideological state apparatus, as it was defined by Louis Althusser, I touch upon the connection between the political and educational dimensions. I then question the role of the teacher with the help of Jacques Rancière and I consider his concept of ignorant schoolmaster and the importance of the emancipatory influence of education. Finally, I lean on Gert Biesta and his concept of the beautiful risk of education that deals with the fragility of the processes and relationships in teaching, as well as the dangers of trying to ensure their certainty by technologisation and capitalisation.
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