FREINET EDUCATION.
John Bronkhorst
Edith Stein/OCT School of Education
Radboud University
The Netherlands
1. Who was Célestin Freinet?
Célestin Freinet was born in 1896 in a peasant family in the village of Gars (Southern France). The beautiful nature and the daily work at his fathers farm were of great importance to his later thoughts about education and school.
During his study at a French school of education Freinet had to go into military service (1915). World war one was going on and he had to defend his country against the Germans. After a year he was severely wounded and had a lung disease for the rest of his life. As a patient in several hospitals he heard the stories of wounded soldiers and noticed that war was in general a matter of the simple citizen and not of the capitalist happy few. This experience also became part of his later philosophy of education.
In 1920 he was able to start his first job at an elementary school. It was the school at Bar sur Loup.
Here he noticed that the classrooms were overcrowded and that the pupils did not like the everyday school life. There were also not enough educational appliances. Speaking for a long time after each other was hard for him according to his lung disease.
He went with his class into the little village and visited the stores and workshops of Bar-sur-Loup. The owners talked to the children and showed them what they were doing and for what purpose. Back in the classroom Freinet noticed that the children were extraordinary interested in what they had seen. They wanted to talk about it. Freinet succeeded in developing techniques that enabled him to systematize the experiences of his children. This techniques had to do with language education but also with the content of the experiences itself.
He discovered a lot of educational tools by working bottom up, learning from his own experiences and those of his children.
His group became more and more motivated. Freinet discovered that the school had to integrate the personal experiences of the pupils. Traditional schools did not pay attention to that. They just followed their textbooks and the personal feelings, beliefs and emotions of the children seemed of non importance.
His walks through the village were observed by parents with mistrust. As their children became more and more motivated and enthusiastic for school, there mistrust faded away.
The French parents called his school "l'école buissonnière" which means so much as: the skip school.
As a village teacher Freinet helped the inhabitants with administrative work, such as filling in forms, calculating taxes and interpreting information. He hoped to make them more resistant against the power of the large corporations.
In his classroom children were free to write their thoughts and reflect on it. One day he bought a little press that enabled him to multiply the texts of his children. This enabled him to bring the children's thoughts outside the classroom. Children noticed the joy of being read and heard adults talk about their texts. So language was something serious, alive and it was a part of your personnel development.
He printed newspapers and handed them over to children, parents and interested teachers. Children learned that printing a newspaper is a very subjective matter. So far many adults and children thought that printing matter is true, sacred and free of subjectivity. By doing this themselves they learned that almost the opposite is true. This technique created a great commitment in his class.
In 1925 Freinet wrote his first article with the title: "No longer textbooks...." After this many books and articles followed. He created a group of teachers sharing his ideas and they exchanged what they experienced in their classrooms.
In 1932 Freinet moved with his wife Elise to Saint Paul. He went on educating children and also parents. Their emancipation was also important to him. The mayor of Saint Paul did not like his critical influence in town. Freinet asked him several times to repair necessary details in his school. As Freinet was visited by a Russian friend, the mayor spread out the message that Freinet had a Russian spy in his house and that he was probably one himself.
The whole village was split around this affair. Most of the parents supported Freinet but the mayor had mighty friends.
The superintendent came to Freinet's school and he saw that everything was according to the reports he received from his teacher. However after a year of intrigues Freinet had to leave Saint Paul.
In 1934 he build, together with his pupils, a house in Vence. Amongst his pupils where several Jewish refugees from Nazi Germany.
Freinet was active against fascism. But in spite of all these activities the authorities saw him as a communist. At the beginning of world war II he was kept in prison. In 1941 he was released and he immediately started a resistance group against the Germans.
After 1945 Freinets support in educational circles grew enormous. Thousands of teachers, all over the world, recognised his ideas and wanted to practise them their selves.
Freinet wrote a couple of books and a lot of articles. He organised conferences in which he disseminated his ideas and those of his fellow teachers.
In 1957 an international organisation was established: the FIMEM (Féderation Internationale des Mouvements de l'Ecole Moderne).
2. Freinet and his contemporary.
Between 1900 en 1920 remarkable changes occurred in the philosophy of education. This had to do with the following circumstances:
a. There was a general widespread feeling of concern about the old 19th century school philosophy, dominated by Herbart. The school functioned as an information machine that had to fill up children with knowledge. Freedom was almost totally absent for children. The new feelings towards school had tot do with neo romanticism that allowed people to have their individual emotions and personal feelings.
b. A second thought, also neo romantic, was the love for nature. Nature was seen as the only pure and real element in human life. Indians, people living in the jungle in tribes but also peasants were seen as unspoiled and
"natural" people. In Rusland Lew Tolstoi established his
"Jasnaja Poljana": an educational experiment with peasant children.
c. A third factor was the rise of socialism. This movement made a choice for workmen and underdogs in society. Capitalism was strongly criticized. Almost each European country had his communist experiments. It was seen as a solution for the problems of that moment.
The Russian revolution evoked an enormous interest in socialism and communism. For the first time a large country had the opportunity of organising a new society funded at a consistent philosophy with a new educational system involved. Intellectuals outside the Sovjet Union sympathised deeply with this movement.
For almost everyone there was also the effect of disappointment after the first world war. "Homo homini lupus" was the general thought and feeling (man is like a wolf to other human beings).
Most of the inspiration came from romanticism. Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712-1784), became the Godfather of the neo romantic educationalists. His thesis is:
Tout est bien sortant des mains de l'auteur des choses
Tout dégénère entre les mains de l'homme
Jean Jacques Rousseau
All over Europe educationalists tried to improve the old school. They all shared basically the same ideas. In the "New educational fellowship" they met each other, exchanged ideas and thoughts and informed colleagues about their progress. Coming from different backgrounds the educationalists emphasized on different philosophical and political ideas. Looking at the most important, still existing movements we can see the following picture:
political philosophy emphasis on
Montessori liberalism the indiviual
Petersen humanism the group as such
Steiner anthroposophy the ideal world
Freinet democratic socialism the group in relation to society
Dalton pragmatic liberalism the individual
3. Starting points for Freinet education.
By working, experimenting and observing children Freinet discovered techniques and came to his starting points. He refused in fact to call his work "pedagogy". His opinion was that school had to adapt to society, within the limits of the fundamental starting points. By having this idea everything is open to discussion and can be changed rapidly. So he liked to call his work a movement, rather then a pedagogy.
The main starting points are:
Experiences and feelings of children have to be taken as a beginning for education. The teacher, together with his group, must adapt this particular experiences to general aims and national standards.
Learning is problem solving, experimenting en discovering. If you are allowed to discover things by yourself, guided by a teacher and your group. learning will be more intrinsically motivated.
Learning must occur in a realistic and meaningful context.
School should not be isolated from society. There are no one sided authority situations. Education has to take place in a democratic context.
About learning Freinet wrote:
"We do like mothers: we listen tot our pupils, talking freely all over. We pay attention to everyone. Then, and there the important task of an educator is starting, we are looking in the flood of stories the things we can use for our daily task as educators and teachers....."
Of course these starting points do have tremendous consequences for teachers.
We just mention a few of them here:
· children are allowed to start their schoolwork with their own experiences
· textbooks are used critically and sometimes they are even abandoned
· children plan their own work and are responsible for if
· children are taken serious and work on equal footing with the teacher
4. Didactic techniques.
In order to meet his starting points Freinet discovered a lot of useful approaches which he called techniques.
We will mention them here brief:
1. The class meeting.
This is the main structural point of Freinet education. The class is self regulating. One of the children is in chair and another is secretary. Every day starts with a short well structured meeting. Children learn a lot of things by doing this. They learn how democracy functions, they discuss there problems, talk about the work they are doing and express feelings and believes.
2. The wall poster.
Most of the Freinet schools have wall posters with three sections:
we wish
we congratulate
we complain
During the week every child is allowed to write at the poster. At the end of the week the children discuss the wall poster and take action to solve problems. There is no need to say that this approach creates a very open and
social oriented atmosphere in a group. Children feel responsible and like the way they are seen as equal footed participants in the same process.
3. Workschedules.
Children are encouraged to plan their own work, for a period of a week and eventually longer. Freinet developed schemes and techniques, also for younger children, who are not able to plan a week of course.
By allowing children to plan, they can also start with the things they like and, especially in the beginning, neglect the more boring things.
4. Natural reading.
Children learn to read with their own words. They are not forced to read and write down words from abstract textbooks. Every child likes to draw and later to put down words on a paper. Children have their own stories and experiences and that enables Freinet teachers to start with the words children like to write down at that moment. Of course this is much more difficult then simply following a pre constructed textbook. However if one has seen children doing this once in his life, most of the teachers are a little bit ashamed about neglecting the language richness of the children.
Research has shown that there are no significant differences between children learning from textbooks and those learning with their own words. The only difference is that children who learned with their own words are highly motivated and much more creative then others.
5. Free text.
Children in a Freinet school decide when and what they like to write and also the form in which they write. Every child has a lot of experiences and likes to write them down. Children feel very satisfied when they can communicate their experiences with other children and adults. The texts, made by the children themselves, is the core of language education. Freinet discovered a lot of practical solutions that enables teachers to use this free texts as elements in a very high standard language education.
6. Arithmatic and natural calculating.
Daily activities, out of the lifes of children, are taken as meaningful starting points for arithmetic activities. Comparable with language education this means that books are used critically and sometimes are even absent.
7. Science and social science.
No need to say that learning here takes place by guided discovery and with your own interest and motivation as a mayor starting point. Active research with an emphasis also on society as the context in which everything occurs, means that children experience the necessity of knowledge and understanding of history, biology, geography, health education.
8. Schoolcorrespondence.
Children in Freinet schools correspond with other children in their own country and also in other countries. This enables them to practice language education and also provides information about the surrounding world. Most of the correspondence so far was done by writing letters, sending tapes and videotapes as well. Nowadays the use of internet e-mail and world wide web (www( allows for a much faster and intenser correspondence. The number of schools using this new techniques is growing rapidly. In the Netherlands almost all Freinet schools are using internet e-mail. Children and teachers exchange ideas, proposals, texts and discuss with each other themes. They also do research together by using these media.
9. Printing techniques.
For Freinet the use of a press enabled him to spread the texts his children made to a larger public. For the children it was a sensation to experience that even adults read your texts. This is what language is meant to be: a real communicative situation. Although the press is still in use, many Freinet schools are replacing it by computer techniques nowadays, as more sophisticated tools.
10. Class or school newspaper.
Being able to print your texts allows you also to make a newspaper. By doing that language education, social science and all subjects of school can be integrated in a natural way. besides children also learn the subjectivity of news and the way it is composed. Is news always true? Who writes what down?
There are tremendous differences between newspapers. That what is written is not sacred and true by itself.
Parents and children enjoy the newspapers very much. They offer a bright view in the daily life of a class and children as such.
Some Freinet schools also present their newspapers by Internet.
11. Creative work.
Children are allowed to follow their own interest. Creative work also functions as a communication of feelings, beliefs, fears and joyful things.
5. In and around the school.......
Unnecessary to say that a teacher of a Freinet school is quite different from traditional schools. It is sometimes a powerful stimulator but also an invisible organisator at the background. Teachers, allowing their children to follow their own interest, have to know much about educational theories and didactic consequences. They must be able to scan textbooks, have a bright view on society and research and must be able to react direct to each child.
For that reason Freinet teachers organised themselves national and international in groups. Here they exchange problems, new ideas and techniques. They also discuss philosophical and political themes arising from their daily work. If you would like to become a Freinet teacher you can follow a couple of courses in collaboration with experienced Freinet teachers. There is an intense follow up and everyone can start with self chosen techniques. It is not necessary to change the whole school at once, like in other movements.
Different from other movements like Montessori and others, Freinet teachers are discussing their work continuously. They are afraid of stiffening, like in some movements has happened. In those movements the word of the founder has become almost sacred and is no longer open to free discussion. Freinet educators tend to be open to free discussion and adapt their work to new situations. Of course within the limits of the starting points.
Parents are a natural part of a Freinet school. They are welcome and encouraged to engage active in collaborating with the team. By doing so the family and school situation are in an optimal balance. This creates a comfortable and warm feeling for most of the children.
Having starting points like this means also an active attitude towards society. Children learn how to deal with problems in modern society, to engage in responsibilities, to take care of other children and also to be responsible for the society as such.
John B.M. Bronkhorst
Edith Stein/OCT School of Education
Radboud University
The Netherlands
bronkhorst@edith.nl
Literature and websites about Freinet (English, German, Dutch)
TNTEE conference, Lisbon/Portugal 1999
Bronkhorst, J. Multimedia learning environments and reform pedagogy.In: Buchberger, F. &
Berghammer, S. (eds): Active learning in teacher education. pp 78-94 Rudolf Trauner, Linz.
Bronkhorst, J. Multimedia learning environments on a balanced basis. In: TELMIE, conference
proceedings, pp108-130, University of Derby.
Bronkhorst, J. Freinet and the 21th century. Paper presented at the ALERT Conference, Vienna
Bronkhorst, J. The use of multimedia learning environments in teacher training colleges. Paper
presented at the ATEE conference, Limerick.
Sivell, John: The wisdom of Matthew Lewiston, N.Y., Edwin Mellon Press 1990ISBN 0-88946-795-1
Sivell, J. Education through work. Edwin Mellon Press, 1993 ISBN 0-7734-9303-4
Sivell, J. Cooperative learning and social change. Toronto, 1990 ISBN 0-921908-07-5
German literature:
Bronkhorst, J.(2003) Multimediale Lernwelten auf der Grundlage eines ausgewogenen Lernmodells.
University of Osnabrueck.
Bronkhorst, J. (2003) Freinet Paedagogik und neue Medien. In: Eichelberger, H.: Freinet Paedagogik.
Studien Verlag, Wien .
Bronkhorst, J. (1994) Freinet hat endlich sein globales Dorf. Fragen und Versuche, Heft 69, Bremen.
Information in Dutch language:
Tans, J. & Bronkhorst, J.: Freinetonderwijs. Een eigen wijze van onderwijs.
Bekadidact, Baarn 1993.
Bronkhorst, J.: Werken met de vrije tekst. SLO, Enschede 1993
Websites:
Almost in every country there are websites about Freinet.
Beneath is a brief choice. Use Google or other search engines to find sites in your country and language.
Have a look in the wikipedia of your country too. http://www.wikipedia.org
http://www.schule.suedtirol.it/blikk/angebote/reformpaedagogik/infothek.htm
Website about reformeducation in German language. Rather complete and with a compelling overview.
http://paed.com
German website on Reformeducation with an emphasis on Freinet. Many links pointing towards new developments in and outside Europe.
French website with a brief history of Freinet and Freinet education in English.
http://www.freinet.org/icem/historu.htm
Website of the Dutch Freinet movement.
Module in Dutch about Reform education and Freinet education.
Bronkhorst, J. Even, T.: (2005) E-learning environment for reform education.
CD-ROM and internet digital learning environment. Showing four reform educational movements: Freinet, Jenaplan, Research has been done after the effects of the environment.
Dalton, Montessori.Only available in Dutch Hbuitgevers, Baarn.
Part of the program can be seen on the website: http://www.reformpedagogiek.nl
http://freinet.paed.com/fr_lit/lit_db.php
Database with literature on Freinet in several languages: English, German and other.
Copyright: J. Bronkhorst Freinet education; 2007