The Third Pedagogue

Remodelling Schools and other Houses of Education

Reinhard Kahl

Up to now, the importance for education of the spaces in which it takes place has been underestimated. Such spaces are, in fact, the “third pedagogue”, in addition to the adults and children and young people.

Schoolrooms today are mostly containers in which subjects – not pupils – are taught. The aesthetic neglect of such places is an embodiment of the inner absence of many pupils and teachers. In view of the current crisis, the need to remodel schools and other houses of education into landscapes of learning has become even more pressing. Like the financial economy, which has operated on the basis of bluff, many school rituals are a temptation to simulate knowledge. What really happens is that information is learned for examinations and then quickly forgotten. Creative learning requires spaces that are inviting and conducive to being wide awake and “in the moment”. In such places of intelligence, knowledge evolves and the ideas of individuals and “amor mundi”, love of the world, are engendered. Learning, the way Pisa studies measure it, will then become a matter of course.
If learning is to enable people to build the future, then we need to remodel our schools, nursery schools and universities into places of transition from an industrial society to a knowledge and idea society. That means putting an end to directing people’s actions from outside – also in teaching. Instead, we need to challenge the will and imagination of the learners and strengthen their sense of responsibility. In schools and other houses of education, children and young people should encounter not only teachers. They should also meet ambassadors from the world outside: craftspeople, artists and scientists. Landscapes of learning should also include room for workshops. This will give us powerful cultural spaces where distinctive individuals can develop. Such spaces will facilitate diversity, cultivate interaction and promote creativity.
We have the chance to combine overdue renovations with structural and pedagogical remodelling. This means fostering unusual projects – for example, when a retired building site foreman supervises pupils in building outside facilities, or when parents join forces with craftspeople and artists to remodel an abandoned factory to serve as an extension of an all-day school.