Jean Le Gal, born in 1933 into a poor family, is one of the last surviving members of Élise and Célestin Freinet, with whom he maintained a collaborative relationship. --- A primary school teacher, he joined the Freinet movement in 1959. He championed the need to take action within public schools to develop teaching practices that would shape individuals capable of bringing about a social revolution. While leading a self-management experiment with his class in Rezé, near Nantes, between 1964 and 1983, he contributed to his pedagogical movement's commitment to self-management. As head of children's rights and research for the Freinet Movement's Steering Committee in 1986, he campaigned for the adoption of the International Convention on the Rights of the Child by the UN. Since adopting this approach in 1989, he has remained committed to action and research for the respect of children's rights and freedoms, working with teachers, activity leaders, educators, and, since 2002, with families.
Following his participation in a symposium on the theme of "student voices," organized last March by the Cahiers Pédagogiques, the Pidapi association, and Icem 34, we had the opportunity to interview him. Always full of conviction, relevance, and simplicity, his words seemed essential to share with the readers of Alternative libertaire.
AL: Changing schools to change society and changing society to change schools seems to have been the guiding principle of your work throughout your life. Can you explain why you still defend revolutionary and self-management convictions at a time when reactionary forces seem to be gaining ground?
Jean Le Gal: When I was discharged from military service in March 1957, I immediately dedicated myself to defending peace in Algeria and to upholding rights and freedoms.
In July 1959, while in Vence, I happened to discover the educational, social, and political dimensions of Freinet pedagogy, which resonated with my commitments outside of school, and I immediately embraced it. Over the years, I implemented Freinet's principle: "Let's change society, but let's also fight to change the school, because it's a matter of fighting on two fronts at once: the political front and the cultural front..."
Could you briefly describe the self-management experiment you conducted in your remedial class, its motivations, its implementation, its successes, and its challenges?
In 1964, based on my research on the cooperative classroom, and taking into account the constraints imposed by external institutions and the social environment, I decided to explore whether it was possible for children to exercise even greater power in all decision-making concerning their lives and work. For me, empowering children to exercise their rights and freedoms and to participate in decisions within a democratically organized collective was a fundamental dimension of a comprehensive, self-managed struggle.
In Freinet pedagogy, I conceive of the cooperative classroom as a complex, coherent system in constant creation. Each class, at a given moment in its development and experimental process, constitutes a unique living environment, a particular synthesis of multiple factors centered around common goals and a shared vision of humanity and society.
My initiative, shared with a few colleagues, was subsequently adopted by many activists within the Freinet Movement. For about twenty years, it allowed us to experiment, compare practices and ideas, and analyze difficulties, with all those who were on the path "towards self-management," both inside and outside of school.
You prefer to talk about a "path towards self-management" with children rather than self-management itself. Can you elaborate on why?
We doubted that children, who had always lived in a system where the teacher decided everything, would be able to immediately create institutions that allowed them to decide together, autonomously and responsibly. Our experience showed that it is only gradually that children manage to collectively master the workings of a council, appreciate the impact of their decisions, and solve their problems. That's why we didn't talk about a self-managed classroom but rather a path "towards self-management." Throughout our self-management attempts, we sought to determine which teacher attitudes and strategies best met our objective: to enable everyone to fully exercise their right to participate in the management of their own life and that of the group to which they belong.
Your definition of freedom and what it entails, the distinction you make between duties and obligations, strikes me as profoundly libertarian and full of common sense. Could you share them with us?
Having experienced the constraints of coercive authority in the army, I have always subsequently resisted any duty imposed upon me. However, I understand that life in society and the exercise of freedoms impose obligations: respect for the freedoms of others, for the collective interest, for established boundaries... In my self-managed cooperative classroom, even before the adoption of the International Convention on the Rights of the Child, I recognized children's right to respect, the right to speak, freedom of movement, and participation in decision-making. Together, we determined how these rights would be exercised, their limits, and their obligations. Everyone, adult and child alike, had to answer for their actions before the community.
You have been and remain an advocate for the recognition of children's rights and freedoms. Can you elaborate on why this is so important to you and how you analyze the obstacles put in place by states to implement these principles?
Having been committed for many years to working towards a society of freedom and social justice, in the advent of which everyone must be able to fully participate, I maintain that children must be prepared for this through education in participatory citizenship and the exercise of rights and freedoms, both within educational institutions and the family. However, it is clear that those in positions of authority, at all levels, often refuse to recognize children as beings capable of exercising the fundamental freedoms to which they are entitled. The struggle must therefore continue, because the participation of everyone in decision-making is essential for the development of a truly self-governing society.
Interview by Gil (UCL Montpellier)
https://www.unioncommunistelibertaire.org/?Lire-Jean-Le-Gal-Reconnaitre-aux-enfants-le-droit-au-respect-et-a-la-parole
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Source: A-infos-en@ainfos.ca
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