A-Infos (en) France, UCL AL #372 - Culture - Read Jean Le Gal: "Recognizing Children's Right to Respect and to Speak" (ca, de, fr, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

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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