France, Alternative Libertaire AL dossier spécial sur
l'éducation populaire - Education: grains of sand in the gears
(fr, it, pt) [machine translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
When speaking of Freinet, especially one thinks of interactive learning. But more than
just an alternative to the lectures, active pedagogies are the heirs of very libertarian
political principles. ------------- There are more than 100 years, May 26, 1915,
disappeared in the heart of the trenches, Thierry Albert, the man of "refusal to send."[1]
If the ideal that this teacher unionist had defended in word and deed - only a collective
emancipation in society or school, is able to liberate the dominated es - has seen some
descendants, we least recognizes him as the promoter, within the school system, "direct
action pedagogy". ---- This socially engaged pedagogy is found of course in Freinet, which
called activists and activists not to remain "peaceful conservative in their class,"
waiting for the revolution without preparation "actively[...] in its class, its district,
village ... "[2]
The competition, no thank you
In the 1900s, a handful of teachers and young teachers in the revolutionary syndicalist
movement have appropriated the rich pedagogical reflection of the labor movement and its
control tools - unions, Labour Exchanges ... From Proudhon to the Municipality of Paris,
through the First International, whereas education of workers will be the work of the
workers themselves, it was for them and substitute them in school "for the people" s
school "of the people".
The contribution of teacher trade union movement was, while affirming solidarity of the
labor movement to bring the dispute within the system. First by the practical principles -
cooperation, teamwork, action on the middle - that oppose those worn by both the
traditional school by capitalism: competition, evaluation permanent, etc. For this "social
pedagogy", the student is no longer a mere spectator-consumer but an actor and a
writer-producer of learning.
Of the student council at the organization AG
The debate of the institutions of the classroom or school through the meeting of the
"student council" - in experimental schools of general organization meeting we speak - the
emphasis on shared learning , a collective approach, critical work on evaluation
procedures, ownership of their environment for perhaps, change, through artistic
productions or write "for real" (correspondence, newspaper) , etc.
All tools that allow even today of "subverting pedagogy," to borrow the title of the
series of workshops co-organized by SUD-Education, CNT-Education, CNT-SO, CGT-93
Education, Empowerment, The new French Education Group Île-de-France and the French
Reading Association, with the magazine N'Autre school, the site class questions (s) and
several activists and individual activists.[3]
Work ambiguities
It is here, perhaps, lies the specificity of pedagogical alternative in France: in this
ongoing effort to sustain it in everyday life, with and for-dominated art.
Other strategies have certainly prevailed outside the system - the famous Montessori or
Steiner schools. But conversely, in classrooms or Freinet schools, among practitioners of
institutional pedagogy or in experimental institutions - self-directed High School or the
Paris Saint-Nazaire for example - this is the choice to act in the public school that was
selected. He then comes to working the ambiguities of an institution, crossed by
contradictions between domination and emancipation.
The ambition remains to move towards social equality, through emancipatory practices, not
to be drops of oil in the wheels of the system but to be in the sand.
Grégory Chambat (class issues (s) / N'Autre school)
CLASS OF BUSINESS (S) Do OTHER SCHOOL: NO ONE WITHOUT THE OTHER
For two years, a group derived from various union backgrounds, educational and community
embarked on the adventure class questions (s) - Q2C for friends. This collaborative
website is devoted to social struggles in education and emancipatory educational
practices. He joined the quarterly paper N'Autre school, which deals with topics related
to the challenges of the moment. In No. 2: equality practices in and outside the
classroom. The contributions are free and desired!
Web: www.questionsdeclasses.org
Review: Class Questions (s) / N'Autre school, in bookstores or by subscription (EUR 20 for
4 issues).
Do OTHER BOOK COLLECTION
Beyond the review, N'Autre school is also a collection of books to Libertalia editions,
for those who want to change the school and society. After Learn to disobey, small school
history that resists (Laurence Biberfeld and Gregory Chambat) Change the school of
critical practices (collective) and The School of barricades (Grégory Chambat), the new
title, Enter Freinet pedagogy (Catherine Chabrun) proposes a concrete and illustrated
introduction to this practice.
Available in bookstores or order online class questions (s).
[1] On this syndicalist and libertarian educator, read "Albert Thierry, man beset by
children" on www.questionsdeclasses.org.
[2] Editorial of The Educator proletarian, October 1936.
[3] Launched in 2002 by the CNT-Education, the journal N'Autre school is now independent
and associated with the class website issues (s).
http://www.alternativelibertaire.org/?Education-nationale-des-grains-de
