Is Secular Pedagogy Possible?

Abstract

The question "Is secular pedagogy possible?" seems as paradoxical as it is meaningless. A secular praxis in education can hardly be denied as a rational educational science, with its permanent influence on pedagogical reflection.¹ The watershed between the two eras of sacred and profane educational theory begins with the Renaissance, which also marked the beginning of the science of education. Emile Durkheim marked the finale of this development in 1902 with his Paris lectures on "Education, Morals, and Society." A strictly secular pedagogy is thus a consequence of the modernization of society: morality is henceforth solely the function of society, and it thus follows that education is the means for providing this function on lay premises (Durkheim, 1973, pp. 58ff.).