Existentialism and Education

This essay is written for the educator and the layman interested in education. Although some of the elements of the existentialist doctrine are treated in philosophic fashion, the professional philosopher will find few new facts or new interpretations for his field.
Writing for the educator and the layman requires a style and approach different from that appropriate to
formal philosophy. The procedure adopted here recognizes the need for an interpretation and choice of themes which are pertinent to educational problems expressed in terms readily understood by those to whom the essay is directed. As Sartre warns, literature must be written with a special audience in view. The reader should be sure he is that audience.Some difficulty was encountered in the choice of themes because the substance of existentialism as a doctrine differs from the substance of education as a study, a profession, and a process. There are, moreover, so many differences among individual existentialists that the essential unity of the doctrine, what there is of it, is apt to become lost as the individual parts are compounded with varied educational points of view. The present arrangement strives to preserve the unity of the doctrine and the unity of education, here treated largely as theory. Relations and connections are established at points where implications for educational policy are both evident and significant.An educational philosopher, like anyone else, must limit the scope of his efforts. If he has elucidated, analyzed, and criticized theory; if he has wrestled with issues and presented certain principles for educational policy, he may be said to have fulfilled his obligation. At times, however, partly to strengthen theory, partly to test it, illustrations of types of practice are provided. The teacher and the administrator are presented with suggestions as to the kind of practical use to which existentialist theory might be put.