THE CHANGING CHILD
THE CHANGING CHILD

Summary/Abstract: This paper develops conceptual models of (i) repressive temporality of common sense and (ii) emancipative temporality of critical thinking. The main focus of the text is the concept of the child treated as common sense, as well as a subject of critical consideration. The central philosophical claim is that, from within the perspectives of common sense, a child is understood as a passive object that requires formation. Such a perspective, in contrast to perspectives of critical thinking, is incapable of considering a child’s own activity (plasticity), which is necessarily involved in the process of her formation. This paper suggests that even the most advanced critical theories are not immune from the repressive temporality of common sense. However, it is proposed that the very shift from childhood to adulthood might cease to be understood as an event that takes place just once. Instead, it might function as a transition that takes place continuously. Such a change of perspective has consequences for the reshaping of the concept of education, unveiling it as a purposeless process without an end.

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