ACERCA DA EDUCAÇÃO NAS REFLEXÕES SOBRE LITTLE ROCK, DE HANNAH ARENDT

Abstract

The issue of education is addressed by Hannah Arendt for the first time in her article Reflections on Little Rock, written in 1957, after the riots in this Arkansas town, USA, when nine black teenagers began to attend Central High School, until then a white-only school. Arendt's article was criticized by several voices, and the author reconsidered her statements about the role of education in her essay The crisis in education. This was published for the first time in 1958, even before the publication of the text on Little Rock, which only occurred in 1959. My article focuses on the theme of education in Reflections on Little Rock. Without intending to approach all the complexity of the article and the discussion it provoked, I reconsider the text from four perspectives. Initially, I focus on historical events, including the later accounts of three of the nine students. Then, I carry out a critical evaluation of Arendt's argument, reserving a section dedicated to the criticism of the writer Ralph Ellison and Arendt's response to it. Finally, I highlight continuities and ruptures between the article on Little Rock and the essay The crisis in education, especially regarding to the relevance of education for the world and its relationship with politics.