The debates on the school are conspicuous by their absence in this presidential campaign. The little that emerges is stingy with neither simplifications nor excess: only the read-write-count triptych, national evaluations and international rankings count.
Human complexity
Against the brutality of the Blanquer ministry and its discrediting of teachers, against the mask of the pragmatism of the results and the false evidence resulting from misguided neurosciences, it is time to recall the human complexity of pedagogy. What would it mean to read without understanding the texts? Write without thinking? Count without building problems? As an echo to Dictionary of primary education and instruction by Ferdinand Buisson, who, at the end of the XIX e century, expressed “The educational turmoil which, far from the images of Épinal, surrounded the creation of the School of the Republic”, Philippe Meirieu offers a Unexpected dictionary of pedagogy.
The entries in this dictionary are not those expected from education sciences, skills and fundamentals. The one who is often presented as one of the main representatives of the “pedagogical” current rather delivers the story of experiences “Which allow us to take an offbeat look at educational action”. From this living collection of texts, we can draw many sources of reflection. From “Abyme” to “Village”, passing by “Anachorete”, “Clinamen”, “Puzzle” and “Remote control”, the author takes us to the heart of particular situations which put into perspective the problems linked to art. to teach and learn.
“Risky adventure”
We will read that pedagogy is not a science but “A risky adventure”, a series of experiments to be constantly restarted to form educational communities, as Makarenko, Freinet and Korczak did in particular. The article “Secularism” allows Philippe Meirieu to highlight the formation of critical thinking and reflection on religious facts, so that the ” secular intelligence »That Régis Debray was talking about. The author questions the status of boredom at school, astonishment as a founding moment of research. At the “Frontier” entrance, it is the distinction between children and adults that is questioned, which is in fact not simple because it is “Impossible to train children and adolescents to participate in a democratic society by keeping them in a state of subjection”.
At the entry “Utopia”, the author distinguishes the fact of being wary of “ideal schools” and that of not giving up “any ideal school”.
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Unexpected, the entry “Obscene”, where the author proposes a “Talk soft” made of nuances and delicacy to talk about sexuality to adolescents, to “Think and make people think”. Unexpected, the entry “Make / go to the theater” insists on what we need most today: decelerating, rediscovering rites and symbols, relearning to watch. Unexpectedly again, at the entrance to “Utopia”, the author distinguishes the fact of being wary of “Ideal schools”and that of not giving up “Any school ideal”.
By foraging in thisUnexpected dictionary of pedagogy, the reader will be able to find the desire to believe in this ideal of another school, better educator of citizens and less unequal, more emancipatory, liberating. From these unexpected events emerges the long-awaited need to discuss an ambitious and human educational project, in and beyond the educational institution.
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