A-Infos (en) France, CNT-AIT: Anarchosyndicalisme #186 - DO WITH THE SCHOOL FOR OUR ANARCHIST PROJECT (ca, de, fr, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

In a previous issue of Anarchosyndicalisme!, we saw, without forgetting 
its many faults, that the National School-Education is no longer the 
place of formatting, indoctrination and social reproduction that it was 
until the end of the 20th century, and we admitted that a large majority 
of staff working within it are dedicated, as much as possible, despite 
the burdens and obstacles of the state school system, to the development 
of young people, sharing in this ( often without knowing it) our 
educational, even political, ideals. As a result, it seems that, in 
various ways, we can now "do with the School" and compulsory education 
in favor of our anarchist revolutionary project (establish a libertarian 
pedagogy and work for the advent of anarchist society ) more easily than 
was possible in the past, taking advantage of the gaps open to us if:

1) For this, I first propose that we prohibit any speech which is only 
negative against School and compulsory education, because the 
consequences of such a position for the young people who read us or 
listen to us, could be to push them to reject these without seeking 
another educational solution, which would necessarily be damaging for 
them knowing that, in today's society, the majority of school dropouts 
without qualifications are doomed to social exclusion or precarious 
employment and exploitation, or even for a minority of them, 
delinquency. However, we are neither cynical nor nihilist: our goal is 
not to lead young people into a dead end and/or a miserable situation in 
the name of our fight against the State and its institutions. This is 
why all our criticisms of the Republican School and instruction must be 
accompanied by concrete, positive and affordable proposals today (and 
not only for the anarchist society to come), for the education of young 
people, whether outside or within the current state school system... And 
as for young people (and their parents) who are not satisfied with our 
proposals or for whom they are not suitable, we cannot be sure encourage 
them to "do with public school", to strive to benefit from everything 
positive and interesting there is for them and for their future, because 
worse than having to endure school- National education and compulsory 
education would mean fleeing them without otherwise receiving an 
education allowing one to later live comfortably and freely within 
today's society...

2) That being said, it seems to me that as anarchists, the easiest and 
most coherent solution that we have to propose to prevent young people 
from state schooling is found in the boycott[1]of its educational 
establishments by promoting (libertarian) family education. This would 
indeed place us in agreement, on the one hand, with our assertion that 
the State is ineffective in all things, including the education of the 
youngest, and, on the other hand, with our confidence in autonomy and in 
the responsibility of individuals, including that of young people. We 
could therefore, in the name of anarchy, become a force of support for 
young people (and their parents) choosing (libertarian) family 
education, like associations, which are apolitical, such as Children 
First (LED'A) or Free to Learn and Instruct Differently (LAIA).

Apart from this radical option, we can also resist, fight and act within 
National Education itself.

3) We can thus encourage young anarchists interested in this 
professional path to direct their studies towards access to teaching 
professions so that they can establish a pedagogy in classes and public 
schools, once they become teachers. libertarian as many followers of 
alternative pedagogies currently do within National Education (Freinet, 
Montessori, Oury or Collot[2]pedagogies; cooperative and/or inverted, 
open, single or multilevel classes; 3rd type school, etc. .), knowing 
that, due to the educational freedom[3]guaranteed to each teacher, each 
National Education professional is free to organize his class management 
and pedagogy as he sees fit and in particular to co-manage them with 
students. In addition, you should know that National Education allows 
teachers sharing the same educational convictions to group together 
within the same establishment, through transfers, until they establish 
an establishment project consistent with their educational convictions. 
municipalities, to which any teacher applying for a position in this 
establishment must then subscribe[4]. Within National Education, we 
could thus encourage the emergence of a growing network of teachers and 
educational establishments applying a libertarian pedagogy, which would 
make our anarchist project active, visible and convincing.

4) As anarchosyndicalists, we can also promote libertarian pedagogy and 
our ideals to all teachers of National Education by sending them our 
writings (magazine or simple letter, monthly or occasional), 
individually or in groups at the address of each school establishment, 
according to our financial and human resources, as other unions do, with 
the hope that more and more teachers will begin to apply a libertarian 
pedagogy and join our anarchist movement, or even our union.

5) If the number of libertarian teachers within National Education were 
to increase, we could little by little create[It is true that this is 
easier to achieve in primary schools than in middle and high schools 
where the number of The number of teachers is larger and the method of 
appointing management staff is different. But experimental high schools, 
still existing, with alternative pedagogies have already been able to 
open within the National Education: experimental high school of 
Saint-Nazaire, self-managed high school of Paris, Experimental 
College-Lycée of Hérouville-Caen, Experimental Center of 'Anduze-Gard, 
Polyvalent and Maritime Experimental High School of Oléron (LEPMO). Cf. 
"Vive l'Education", Colloquies, ACL, 1988]]of schools under contract 
(which would limit financial needs since in this hypothesis the salaries 
of teachers would be covered by National Education) or outside 
contract[5](This would obviously be ideal because as anarchists, we want 
to free ourselves from the supervision of the State, but this would pose 
the problem of financing the establishments created on the one hand and 
the salary teachers on the other hand, unless the latter also exercise 
another paid profession allowing them to intervene voluntarily in our 
libertarian schools) with those of these professionals who, with their 
teaching experience acquired within the educational establishments of 
National Education, would like to leave state educational establishments 
to enroll in a libertarian establishment project, the educational 
establishments that we would create then becoming "showcases" for our 
ideals and our anarchist project[6], especially if we give them 
sufficiently explicit names, for example by referring to their 
specificities and to renowned anarchist pedagogues[7]: self-managed 
school, Francisco Ferrer, free education community, Jakob Robert Schmid, 
Paul Robin integral education center ...

6) We can also advise young people and their parents to demand a more 
libertarian pedagogy within National Education classes and educational 
establishments and not to tolerate any authoritarian drift from teachers 
or educational teams. It is up to everyone to choose, according to their 
convictions, the most appropriate means of acting in this direction: 
direct relationship with the teacher concerned, hierarchical recourse, 
creation of a committee of students and/or parents of students, change 
establishment, etc.

7) We could finally fight ardently against elitist private Catholic 
establishments[8]where the social reproduction of the ruling social 
classes begins[9], by denouncing the contradiction between their 
proclaimed religious ideals (those affirmed by their messiah, such as 
they are recounted in the New Testament which denounces inequalities, 
the rich and the cult of wealth, the desire to appear, to dominate, to 
rise above others, individualism, etc.) and their educational practices 
(selection by money - due to high tuition fees - and by academic record 
to admit only "good" students from rich families; grades, rankings, 
elitism used to exclude from the establishment "bad" students; 
organization of only general courses of excellence aimed at supposedly 
prestigious higher education; cramming, etc.) by putting up posters and 
stickers as well as distributing leaflets in order to appeal to young 
people[10]distorted in this type of evil place...

Frédéric B (Lille)

https://cntaittoulouse.lautre.net/spip.php?article1389
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