Natality, the Past, and the Pearl Diver: Exploring Hannah Arendt's Educational Teaching

The penetrating philosophical and political writings of Hannah Arendt has offered humankind provocative and insightful analysis on political action, moral behavior, and human freedom. All the more arresting, are Arendt's writings on education, fully expressed in her work, "Crisis in Education." This article investigates Arendt's understanding of the crisis and how natality, authority, and conserving what Arendt terms the "newcomer's" revolutionary action through a nuanced view of the past, addresses that crisis. This article also considers a more comprehensive understanding of the newcomer's revolutionary activity during educational experiences by analyzing Arendt's views on tradition and the "pearl diver" metaphor described in her essay on Walter Benjamin. In exploring the impact Arendt's thinking may have on education, educationists can have new hope in their quest for further theoretical and philosophical underpinnings for teaching and learning and enhance the vibrancy and meaningfulness of philosophy of education.