Abstract

In this chapter I deal with a topic that has become a serious subject of educational theory and philosophy only recently, viz. the human body. As a rule, the very fact that learning and teaching are events in which we are involved as bodies, i.e. as people made out of ‘flesh and blood’, has been disregarded, if not repressed. If educationalists have paid attention to the physical dimension of human life at all, the body appeared in a stereotypical, negative way. This is, the body is regarded as an object of distrust that should be kept under control by installing harsh disciplinary measures. As of recently, however, a revaluation of human corporeality seems to have occurred, i.e. increasingly corporeality is taken to be an important factor one should take into account when theorizing education. As such the body has been discovered by educational philosophers, even though in the day-to-day practice of learning and teaching it often remains forgotten.In the first part I discuss the traditional view on the body within educational philosophy and theory. I go on showing, in the second and third sections, how gradually a more positive attitude vis-à-vis corporeality has emerged, and why it is of potential relevance for education. In a fourth section I return to the question why after all the body has been neglected, suppressed or dealt with in a condescending way. In the last part I zoom in on a case where education and the body are closely intertwined: physical education.