Marie-Laure Viaud
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Today, in France, there are quite a number of schools that are not easily labelled; “alternative schools”, “experimental schools”, “innovative…”. They are less common than in countries like Germany and Canada. In public education there are around forty and it is estimated that they teach less than 2,000 pupils.
Some like the Decroly schools have existed since 1946, whilst others, such as the Parisian Vitruve school, date from the beginning of the 60s and plenty opened in the 70s. Only a few have managed to survive including that at La Villeneuve de Grenoble.
In 1982 the Education Minister, Alain Savary created five autonomous lycees, including those at Paris, St Nazaire, Oleron and Herouville. At the beginning of the 1990s, with the increasing awareness of disaffected students, innovative schools were created. Jack Lang authorised some “pioneer” middle schools (colleges) in 2001-2. Throughout this period some twenty Freinet primary schools managed to develop.
In the private sector, some sixty “alternative” nursery and primary schools exist, together with a dozen or so middle and upper schools. These include Montessori, Steiner and “new education” establishments like La Prairie. There are also isolated teachers in primary education many of whom belong to the Freinet movement.
Finally, in Paris VII & VIII Universities, which were created after 1986, certain departments still have examples of “alternative teaching”
In what ways do these establishments differ and how do they resemble each other?
They all put the activity of the pupils at the forefront, working in their interests and relating it to real life. Expression and communication, carrying out projects and multidisciplinary work are found throughout. Nevertheless, many lines of ideological cleavage exist between them, even after more than a century.
One line of disagreement concerns the priorities, specially designed schools favour the children’s thriving whilst following courses leading to national qualifications, nevertheless they do not attempt to change the relationship with knowledge. For example the Herouville College-Lycée offers individual tuition, assistance with homework and several hours of multidisciplinary project work each week. Other than that, the classes, exams and internal discipline differ little from ordinary schools.
“Integrated schools” focus on the long term by developing a love of learning, a critical attitude and the ability to carry out projects. A Le Mans middle school doesn’t arrange the pupils in classes, instead they belong to groups carrying out multidisciplinary project, such as producing a piece of theatre or writing a journal. During the year they belong to a stable tutor group. Every six weeks they join groups that interest them or fulfil their needs, rather like the university system of credits. These include Mental Arithmetic level 2, Ancient Egypt, Geography or Volcanoes. Evaluation is by means of diplomas, each pupil has a list of the diplomas that they need to acquire by the end of the course.
Another line of disagreement concerns the role of adults; some consider that the child has a natural desire to learn and the ability to do it, so the adults should exercise a minimum of constraint and not intervene in the learning process. In some lycées there is no control over attendance, nor is there any evaluation other than an informal oral process; rather like the legendary Summerhill.
Other innovators consider that a highly structured framework with pedagogical measures to promote motivation and learning, these can be found in La Neuville where there are detailed rules that have been established collectively and coloured belts that allows the evaluation of the pupils and their progress.
The final schism is political. A section of alternative schools have an intake of socially favoured children, partly due to the cost of private schooling or because the parents have the knowledge to choose such an education for their children. This is the case in most of the Montessori and Steiner schools.
Others tie their theories to the desire for social transformation and consider that an alternative education may emancipate the lower classes. In order to connect with these people many of these schools have had to the destination for the children that no one wants. Korczak and Paul Robin worked in orphanages, Deligny with delinquents. Today, some of these schools only exist because they take children in difficulty.
The results of these different schools are generally good, though the vary according to the establishment. The specially designed schools have the best exam results in the short term, particularly with pupils who only attend for a few years.
The “Integrated Schools”, rather than favouring knowledge largely promote autonomy and succeed best with pupils who obtain most of their schooling there. In non-directive schools, youngsters in difficulty have difficulty with the lack of reference points; whilst in schools founded on the principle of “institutional pedagogy” often bring them spectacular success.
Overall, the pupils say they are happy to come to a school with an excellent atmosphere, where violence and rudeness are very rare.
Why don’t more of these schools exist? The existing schools are largely in the secondary sector and are several times oversubscribed, but they find it difficult to exist with regimes that differ considerably from the norm. National Education puts them in a paradoxical situation, officially it is said that they wish them success; but, in fact, there are many constraints, such as the obligation to accept an important percentage of children in difficulty, the problem of getting voluntary teachers, inappropriate premises, late payments and incessant administrative annoyances. These all compromise the project’s success.
However, if they were more numerous and rigorously evaluated, these schools might provide a laboratory of ideas for tomorrow’s schools.
Marie-Laure Viaud is a researcher at the “Service d’histoire et d’education” (SHE) in Lyon
Jam Butty's Alternative Education 