Category Archives: Uncategorized

I am in the middle of reading “Il Bambino è il Maestro – Vita di Maria Montessori” by Cristina de Stefano.  (The Child is the Teacher – Life of Maria Montessori). In view of the constant demand from politician for discipline in schools, I was particularly struck by the following passage “Nel nostro sistema, abbiamoContinue reading “Discipline”

Listening to Claudia Hammond’s BBC Radio 4 programme “Anatomy of Touch” this morning caused my mind to make connections with what I had read yesterday evening in Cristina de Stefano’s biography of Maria Montessori about the work of Jean Marc Gaspard Itard with the Wild Boy of Aveyron and of his assistant Édouard Séguin‘s educationContinue reading “Touch”

by Anne Sliper Midling,  Norwegian University of Science and Technology This is an edited version. The full article can be read at: https://medicalxpress.com/tags/screen+time/ Typing, clicking and watching occupy an increasing number of hours in the average child’s day. But brain research shows that writing by hand helps people remember better and learn more. New brain researchContinue reading “Why writing by hand makes kids smarter”

It is worth sharing Stephen Bates, Guardian obituary (5-9-20) of which this is an edited version. Sir Ken Robinson, a proponent of the encouragement of creativity among children was largely ignored by politicians of both main parties as he insisted that the policy of successive UK governments, that literacy and numeracy should predominate, was aContinue reading “Sir Ken Robinson”

This project was founded by Loli Anaut in the Amara Berri suburb of San Sebastian. Her pedagogical planning, untiring work, tenacity and efforts were aided by a team of teachers united in the task of providing a high quality educational experience. The organisation coordinates nineteen centres in the Basque Autonomous Community.  In 1990 Amara BerriContinue reading “Sistema Amara Berri”

These two letters from the Guardian 6-8-20 are worth sharing: Your balanced interview with Anna Dusseau on home schooling was a pleasure to read (The teacher who decided to ‘unschool’ her own children, 4 August). Dusseau highlights why ever more families (over 50,000 children at the last count) are rejecting institutional schooling for home educationContinue reading “Unschooling”

Jean-Baptiste André Godin (1817-1888) was a utopian industrialist who put into practice the ideal of social justice. He was the head of large foundry and factory in Guise and Brussels.  He was self-taught and became a journalist, writer and politician as the Deputy for the Aisne Department. He built a town of 2000 inhabitants calledContinue reading “Jean-Baptiste Godin”

Charles Fourier (1722-1837) was a French philosopher and utopian social theorist who advocated the “phalanx” a communal association of producers as a way of reconstructing society. The phalange was to be a cooperative agricultural community that shifted roles to ensure the individual’s social welfare. He saw this as a way to distribute wealth more equitablyContinue reading “Charles Fourier”

Marie-Laure Viaud unknown 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 likeContinue reading “Alternative Schools in France”

Anne Querrien is a sociologist  The National Library of France holds much information about urban collectives and the extraordinary ideological battle surrounding mutual schools.  In France, mutual schools started in 1816 under the then Minister of Public Instruction, François Guizot and were suppressed by him in 1833, as prime minister, because they were too successful.Continue reading “Mutual Schools”