The School in the Middle: the Educational Institution as a "Third" Place

Notes on the philosophy of education

Abstract

The article claims that the identity of the school as an institution is rooted in its thirdness. Firstly, Ivan Illich’s critique of the school is discussed as an attempt to free school from societal demands. Secondly, the re-discovery of the school as a place characterized by thirdness – a space for free and independent study, condition of possibility of the development of the other societal components – by contemporary philosophy of education is presented.