Paul Robin

Paul Robin (1837 –1912) was a French libertarian pedagogue. He is best known for having developed “Integrated Education” in the Cempuis Orphanage.

He said, “The official science of education does nothing better for young adolescents other than making them sick.  The privileged ones go to college, the ordinary pupils transfer to the factory and the rejects end in prison”.

Integrated Education (1880 – 1894).

Robin considered that education should not just prepare individuals for a job, “Every child has the right, at the same time, to become a worker with his hands and a worker with his head.

Above all, he created an integrated public school and, only later, was specialisation towards the individual’s profession introduced.

There are three aspects to his system:

Physical Education occupied one third of the time.  They participated in swimming (in the pool that the pupils themselves had built), gymnastics, running, jumping, throwing, climbing, boxing (without fighting), horse riding.  These exercises were practiced with the aim of developing strength without the competitiveness of elitist sports.  Hikes and trips to the seaside were organised.

Intellectual Education: Robin said, “Allow the children to make their own discoveries, listen to their questions, answer them properly in the spirit that encourages them to continue their efforts.  Above all, be careful not to impose ready-made, banal ideas that are made through unthinking and thoughtless routine.

Robin wanted children to develop a rational, scientific spirit.  The pleasure of learning through observation and experience was at the centre of his pedagogy.

The students also studied artistic subjects, like singing, drawing, music and theatre, as a way of communicating ideas.  He used the most up-to-date techniques to educate the pupils for the time in which they lived.

Moral Education was based on group solidarity and the sense of collective responsibilities.  The older pupils aided the younger ones, each child had a material responsibility to help the community…

The child must develop a critical attitude, rejecting false ideas and not just accept the word of his “masters”.

The only sanction was isolation for the offenders to reflect on their conduct.