Abstract

In the extensive bibliography of Jacques Maritain, there is a book dealing with education titled "L'education à la croisée des chemins". It initially consists of the texts of four lectures held in 1943 at the Yale University, in the United States under the title "Education at the Crossroads", published for the first time in 1943. The contents of these conferences has been published by Fayard in 1959 with the title "Pour une philosophie de l’éducation". This essay by Maritain was later re-modeled to the last edition in French. The work outlines the main coordinates of the educational philosophy of Jacques Maritain, and consists of four sections: I. The errors of contemporary pedagogy; II. The educational relationship; III. Liberal education; IV. Complementary tasks. Maritain emphasizes persons' formation as the primary purpose of education to the American pragmatism and European rationalism, noting that every educational project, of every background it may be, always implies a precise anthropology, sometimes implied. The educational relationship is to avoid the double error of a conception "despotic" on the part of the teacher and of a conception "anarchist" by the pupil. Education must tend to unity of knowledge, making sure that the learning process begins from the experience, but always ends in reason. The final chapters relate more specifically to the organization of education in America, but the first two chapters offer a real philosophical approach to education. This is based on a vision of the person who activates the spiritual dimension, undermined by the development of an individual's technical design. "Education at the crossroads" speaks to the need for "education" of the man based on its core value.The work also contains the Maritain's view of the role of the school in society, with particular reference to the situation in the United States and France during the era of his contemporary.