Chronicle
Elise and Célestin Freinet
An introduction to the Freinet couple's reform pedagogy
Dear reader:in,
Here you can find out how the Freinet couple developed the cornerstones of the Freinet pedagogy. The innovative power of this pedagogy still inspires us today. Freinet’s pedagogy is very topical.
Together with his wife Élise, Célestin Freinet founded the Freinet pedagogy around 100 years ago. The Freinets developed a pedagogy that consistently placed the child at the center. Regardless of origin, social status and religion, they created a space for every child in which they could develop freely and enjoy learning.
The Freinets also organized the classes as cooperatives. The learners formed a class council in which every child had a voice. Pupils were able to work out their own learning material without coercion or pressure. The learners themselves determined what they wanted to learn, who they worked with and how much time they needed. Élise and Célestin set up work areas with suitable materials in the corners of the classrooms. Here they worked, researched and learned in so-called studios. Their motivation was comprehensively shaped by the idea of a democratic and just society. With the pedagogical and political demand to “give children the floor”, the Freinets took a stand against contemporary authoritarian society and schools. They showed that it is possible to design learning processes in such a way,
that solidarity, freedom and equality are realized right from the start. Therefore, the core of Freinet’s pedagogy is the consistent commitment to the independence of learners.
In the 1920s, the Freinets initially worked at regular state schools, village schools in the south of France near Nice. Here they developed a completely different way of learning. From the very beginning, they planned and tested the innovations in cooperation with other colleagues. Teacher-led lessons were gradually replaced by self-determined work by the students. Célestin and Élise developed a wide-ranging repertoire of different methods for this. Time and again, they explored how the child could become the focus of learning independently. Existing reform pedagogical approaches were adopted and expanded with their own ideas. The couple also observed in their own daughter Madeleine that children’s curiosity, exploration, research and experimentation achieved significant and lasting learning success.
In order to strengthen and spread the reform, the Freinets and many like-minded people founded the first cooperative in 1924, from which the steadily growing French teachers’ movement of the Ecole Moderne (Modern School) emerged.
The acquisition of a printing press revolutionized the use of writing and language in the school learning process. Pupils wrote free texts, which they then printed together. Class newspapers and newspapers with relevant news for the entire region were created. The working materials were also mostly produced by the children themselves in their own school print shops. Another important element was the correspondence between the individual groups and classes. The pupils exchanged books, class newspapers and worksheets. Results were presented and questions from the correspondence classes were answered.
In 1935, Élise and Célestin left the public school service after tough disputes with the school bureaucracy and founded a private rural education home in Vence (also in the south of France), which, as an experimental school, soon became an important place of practical educational research and still is today.
After the Second World War, a pedagogical cooperative was founded for the whole of France in 1947. Ten years later, the International Association of the Freinet Movement was founded. Célestin Freinet campaigned for a cross-border association of teachers in order to create a real basis for the idea of education for world peace. The spread of Freinet’s pedagogy now extended across the entire Romance-speaking world as far as Canada and Latin America, across Europe and even as far as Japan. In France and Belgium, Freinet schools are even supported by the state.
In addition to his practical work, Célestin Freinet wrote numerous writings that impressively reflect his experiences. He thus created the basis for an educational concept that is suitable for all “educators” (from early childhood learning to adult education). Freinet’s pedagogy is a learning path for all people.
Our association, the Kooperative für Freinet-Pädagogik e.V., is one of the largest groups in the international Freinet movement. The valuable content and methods are passed on through regular further and advanced training as well as national and regional meetings. From the founding of the Freinet pedagogy to the present day, all committed “Freinis” have our most valuable treasures in mind: our children.
Our 100-year Freinet chronicle
Elise and Célestin Freinet - the life and work of two southern French reform pedagogues
Célestin Freinet was born on October 15, 1896 in the southern French village of Gars, the fifth of six children. His parents were farmers and also ran a small store in the village. Freinet and his siblings had to work in and for the family from an early age. Freinet was even allowed to attend the village’s public school, which was not a matter of course in his time!
However, the bright and freedom-loving boy often found the very regimented lessons a torture.
These experiences shaped Freinet’s views and actions as well as his close connection with nature, the country and its people.
Élise Lagier-Bruno was born in 1898. Freinet did not yet know the great importance this woman would have in his life
(Élise Freinet 1898 – 1983).
He began studying to become a teacher at the age of 16 (the school years were much shorter back then).
In 1915, he had to abandon his studies because (like many young men of his generation) he was drafted into the army during the First World War. Freinet was 19 years old at the time!
Before Verdun in 1916, he suffered an extremely serious lung injury and spent four years (!!!) in various military hospitals and sanatoriums.
His war experiences made him a convinced pacifist throughout his life.
Freinet used the period of convalescence to further his pedagogical and political education. It is known that he was particularly interested in the following authors and their concepts:
- Jean-Jaques Rousseau (1712 – 1778)
sees all people as equal and free by nature - Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi (1746 – 1827)
is regarded as the forerunner of visual pedagogy and reform pedagogy. His aim was to provide holistic education to strengthen people’s ability to work independently and cooperatively in a democratic community. - Adolphe Ferrière (1879 – 1960)
advocated the self-activity of pupils and their shared responsibility in an “École active” (active school). He saw the pupil’s personal experience as the basis for their intellectual upbringing and education and advocated hands-on work by the pupils in the sense of a working school.
Freinet also studied the writings of Karl Marx (1818 – 1883) and Vladimir Ilyich Lenin (1870 – 1924), demonstrating his interest in fundamental social criticism.
In 1920, Freinet took up his first teaching position in the small, two-grade village school for boys in Bar-sur-Loup (near Nice). It was here that a different kind of learning emerged when several colleagues joined forces and tried to change teaching together. This is where what we now call “Freinet pedagogy” came into being.
from: “Lehrer und Schüler verändern die Schule”, pictures and texts on Freinet’s pedagogy, compiled and annotated by Martin Zülch, Arbeitskreis Grundschule e.V., Frankfurt am Main, Materialvertrieb der Pädagogik-Kooperativen n.d., p.18
In 1923, Freinet bought a printing press and had his pupils write and print free texts without a predetermined theme. Class newspapers soon emerged from this. The practice of free text and school printing gradually replaced conventional school books and helped to “give the children the word”. The print shop becomes a symbol of the rapidly growing “Freinet movement”, which is linked together through a network of cooperation, correspondence, meetings and conferences.
Freinet intensively sought contact with progressive educational movements in Europe. In 1922, while attending a congress in Hamburg, he met reform pedagogues from Germany.
These were among others:
- Hermann Lietz,
who is particularly committed to rural education homes - Paul Geheeb,
the founder of the Odenwald School and - Peter Petersen,
whose Jena Plan replaces learning in the traditional classroom with more self-directed learning in working groups and projects.
Among the initiators of the Hamburg school reform, he also found forerunners of his own later views and methods:
the “pedagogy from the child”, the “free essay”, the perspective on the “creative powers of the child”.
Freinet organized the first inter-school correspondence with a colleague from Trégunc (Brittany) in 1924.
The regular exchange broadened the children’s horizon of experience: their language and writing became a living means of communication for them, even across distances.
In the same year, Freinet and many like-minded people founded a “cooperative” that organized pedagogical collaboration and published tools and materials (“Coopérative de l’Enseignement Laïc”, C.E.L.), from which the French teachers’ movement of the “Ecole Moderne” gradually emerged.
The term “modern school” was chosen deliberately. Freinet did not want to take center stage as a person, but rather emphasize the goal that everyone was striving for together: to transform schools from the inside out.
Clear political intentions distinguish this movement from other reform pedagogical movements, as it strives for emancipatory goals and takes sides with the children of the underprivileged.
Freinet himself worked actively in the trade union and even became a member of the French Communist Party (which he left again in 1948, however, as his pedagogical intentions and those of the party were incompatible).
In 1926, Célestin Freinet married the teacher and woodcut artist Élise Lagier Bruno (1898 – 1983). She became his closest collaborator throughout his life. In 1927, Élise received the “Prix Gustave Dore”, named after a famous 19th century illustrator, for her woodcuts. Under her maiden name, she illustrated Freinet’s brochure “Un mois avec les enfants russes” about his trip to Russia (1925) and also created the logo for the cooperative.
In 1929, her only daughter Madeleine, called Balouette, was born (Madeleine Freinet 1929 – 2007). Intensive observations of her daughter form the basis for the development of the “Natural Method” for learning to read and write.
The creative-artistic aspect within the “Ecole Moderne” is attributed to Élise Freinet. In numerous essays, she deals with the introduction to art, children’s drawings and children’s literature. The focus of her school work was on the arts and “free expression”. She played theater with the children and taught them to draw.
She was the first to speak of “dessin libre” (free drawing), even before Célestin used the term “texte libre” (free text).
The first congress of the “Ecole Moderne” took place in 1927. The “Kooperative” distributes printers, work cards, “reference boxes” and reading books – work tools that finally replace textbooks and enable self-organized “free work”.
In 1928, Freinet and his wife moved to St. Paul de Vence to a school where they could both teach. Célestin introduces the record as a medium for teaching.
The growing pedagogical movement is challenging the foundations of existing schools. This leads to fierce conflicts with the school bureaucracy.
In 1932, Freinet’s pupils report in a free text about a church festival at which the priest is said to have been drunk. As a result, an open school fight broke out, which soon developed into a comprehensive school policy dispute at national level.
The political views of Élise and Célestin Freinet are at the heart of this conflict. Due to their membership of the Communist Party, they were even accused of spying for the USSR.
In 1935, Élise and Célestin left the public school service and founded a private rural education home in Vence, which soon became an important place of practical educational research as an experimental school.
At the heart of the school is meaningful, creative work that develops the child.
The Freinets showed political and humanitarian commitment when they took in children whose parents had been murdered in the Spanish Civil War and later also orphaned Jewish children from Germany.
In 1940, Célestin Freinet was arrested at the instigation of the Vichy regime and sent to an internment camp. He was accused of communist propaganda and subversion.
During this time, he wrote fundamental pedagogical works, which he published in 1946 under the title “L’ École Moderne Française” (“The Modern French School”).
The Vichy government orders the closure of the school in Vence.
Freinet was released from the camp in 1943, but placed under police supervision.
From then on, Freinet played an important role in the southern French resistance (Résistance) against the German occupiers.
The school in Vence was destroyed during the Second World War, but was rebuilt after 1944 and reopened in 1946.
In 1947, the educational cooperative I.C.E.M. (Institut Coopératif de l’École Moderne) was founded in France.
The international Freinet movement emerges
In 1957, the International Federation of the Freinet Movement F.I.M.E.M. (Fédération Internationale des Mouvements de l’École Moderne) was founded to spread the reform movement worldwide.
Freinet advocates a cross-border association of teachers in order to give the idea of education for world peace a real foundation.
The “Charte de École Moderne” was drawn up at a FIMEM congress in Pau in 1968. This became the fundamental document of the international Freinet movement.
Since 1968, an international Freinet meeting has been held every two years, each time organized by a member country.
Spreading the Freinet pedagogy:
In 1965, the last congress was held in Brest, which Freinet attended himself. Célestin died in Vence on October 8, 1966.
After the death of her husband, Élise Freinet took over responsibility for the Freinet pedagogy. In 1977, she publishes the book “L’itinéraire de Célestin Freinet”, in which she describes her husband’s life’s work.
Family circumstances and the turmoil of war meant that daughter Madeleine Freinet (1929 – 2007) never attended secondary school and was later unable to run the school in Vence after her mother’s death (1983). Her husband Jacques Bens, who was himself a pupil at the “École Freinet”, therefore took over the management.
The “Ecole Freinet” still exists today. Since September 1991, it has had the status of an “Ecole publique” and is the only elementary school in France to be run by the state (normally elementary school are run by the local authorities). Attached to it is a “Classe d’école maternelle”. The “Ecole Freinet” is not a regular school in the region, but can be freely chosen by parents – a concession by the state to the “Ecole Freinet”.
Our club history
A small group of teachers and student teachers from the Freiburg area come into contact with practicing Freinet teachers in nearby Alsace. They are enthusiastic about what they see there on site.
They even make a film (in Super 8 format, which was widespread at the time): “Teachers and pupils change the school”. Everyone is fascinated by the openness in the classes. The children work in the studios, where their hands and senses are stimulated. The workshop character is not limited to the artistic, but is integrated into all the learning work.
At some point you start to deal with something – you discover something that you want to clarify. You start to investigate, find answers … and a learning process begins. This is the principle that shapes my teaching the most, what I emphasize the most. I do give impulses, sometimes I also explain tasks, but in the best case a work process is started by a pupil or a group, which then develops somewhere. In the process, they find out something that I don’t know either, where I have to react: there is a discussion between me and the students so that the process continues.
Jochen Zülch in: “25 Years Freinet Cooperative”, FuV No. XX, p. XX
A group of young teachers and university members developed numerous journalistic activities, organized information events, the first nationwide meetings and founded regional teacher groups. Personal contact and mutual support play a major role right from the start.
On January 4, 1976, the Pädagogik-Kooperative is founded in Osterrade / Dithmarschen district. 12 people are involved.
The name “Pädagogik-Kooperative” is intended to express the fact that, in addition to the Freinet orientation, other reform pedagogical currents are also welcome.
The magazine “Fragen und Versuche” (FuV) has been around since 1976. Four times a year, Freinet teachers use it to discuss their practice, educational policy issues and internal questions. The first two issues were published under the title “Lehrerglück”.
In its beginnings, the Freinet movement focused on the institution of school. This is because the people organized in it were initially exclusively teachers. It was primarily primary and secondary school teachers who recognized the potential of a comprehensive change in learning and teaching for their own practice. As the movement expanded, teachers from all other types of schools and universities also joined.
From the very beginning, a lively meeting culture develops in the Pedagogical Cooperative: local and regional meetings, nationwide New Year’s Eve meetings and nationwide Whitsun meetings.
The focus is on studios, workshops and self-organization. All participants determine the forms and content of their exchange on the spot.
Key components are plenary sessions of all participants and presentations from the workshops as well as workshops and joint celebrations.
Between 1980 and 1984, a full-time office is established in Bremen with a special-purpose company that publishes and distributes the teaching materials developed by the movement.
The special-purpose business is closed in 1997. Developments in the textbook market and the onset of digitization meant that the distribution of the company’s own materials was no longer profitable.
As part of the discussion about early childhood education, the importance of Freinet’s pedagogy for learning in daycare centres is also being recognized. The movement is expanding and focusing on “lifelong learning” according to and with Freinet. Many educators and daycare center directors join the Freinet cooperative.
The first Freinet Symposium takes place in Bremen in 1999. Here, theory and practice are combined in a Freinetian way in an event lasting several days. A fundamental element of the symposia are also mutual observations, which are carried out at short notice. Since then, a symposium has been held every two years. The activities always revolve around a current educational policy topic.
At the beginning of the millennium, the “Pädagogik-Kooperative” is renamed the “Freinet-Kooperative ” in order to be clearly recognizable from the outside.
In 2004, the first homepage of the Freinet cooperative goes online.
The canon of existing events includes thematically defined, one-day specialist days. Educators who work specifically in this subject area and want to exchange ideas meet here (e.g. “School in the focal point” or “Democracy in daycare centers”).
The first training course on Freinet pedagogy entitled “Eagles don’t climb stairs” took place from 2008 to 2010. It consisted of 6 five-day modules, each with a fixed group of participants. Experienced Freinet pedagogues introduce the essential elements of Freinet pedagogy.
In 2013, the Freinet Cooperative office moved to the “Mikado” conference center. Since then, the management tasks have been carried out by the “Verein für ganzheitliches Lernen e.V.” (Association for Holistic Learning) via a cooperation agreement.
Since the first round of further training, a further seven rounds of further training and symposia have taken place.
A training course 2 “From knot to supporting network”, which is intended to continue the successful training course 1, is being developed and planned.
In 2020 and 2021, Corona will put our joint activities, training courses, further training and meetings into temporary retirement. The time will be used to drive forward digital development within the Freinet cooperative.
The first digital general meeting takes place at the beginning of 2022 with a large turnout.
A new board is elected, the renewal of the homepage is decided. The “Freinet-Kooperative” is renamed “Kooperative für Freinet-Pädagogik e.V.” in order to bring the words “pedagogy” and “Freinet” in the association’s name into a direct connection. The idea of the “cooperative” in the name should continue to represent the basic idea of coming together and working together.
Following the online launch of the new homepage with new offerings such as the online studios, a resumption of further training in the “post-corona” period is planned for 2023.