Ferenczi - Freinet
Prot, Frédérique Marie
Ferenczi - Freinet - 2024.
18
In this article, I look at Ferenczi’s famous 1908 text, where he calls for reflection on and changes to school practices, which, he says, “constitute a veritable breeding ground for current neuroses” (Ferenczi, 1908/1968, p. 51). This text laid the groundwork for Célestin Freinet’s lecture twenty years later in Leipzig, entitled “Discipline among schoolchildren,” in which he criticized what he called “oppressive discipline.” It seems that the crucial question posed by Ferenczi is echoed in the practices imagined and implemented by Freinet: if the education received from adults plays a significant role in the subsequent pathology of each individual, what therapeutic and prophylactic means can be envisaged to counter such practices? Education in nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century Germany, to which Ferenczi was probably referring, was problematic on account of its brutality. It suppressed all forms of desire and willpower in the young. In a way, it is the dilemma of education itself that psychoanalysts and pedagogues are examining: the structuring role that adults play in guiding children through necessary experiences of frustration, enabling them to become civilized adults — but how ? Freinet’s proposal is clear, and is based on two major ideas that he later went on to develop: a new organization of the school and the classroom that would enable us to move away from the model of “oppressive” discipline toward a new model of discipline that he described as “liberating discipline,” understood as freeing the child from certain psychological disorders. The educator’s ability to act with solicitude can be understood as the possibility of showing tact in the relationship with children. Introduced by Ferenczi, tact takes on its full importance for the pedagogue. Ferenczi’s notion of tact includes the idea of striking a chord with someone by using the right words at the right time, without hurting their feelings. In the two short episodes from a co-op meeting that I’m presenting, I aim to show that female teachers are capable of exercising tact.
Ferenczi - Freinet - 2024.
18
In this article, I look at Ferenczi’s famous 1908 text, where he calls for reflection on and changes to school practices, which, he says, “constitute a veritable breeding ground for current neuroses” (Ferenczi, 1908/1968, p. 51). This text laid the groundwork for Célestin Freinet’s lecture twenty years later in Leipzig, entitled “Discipline among schoolchildren,” in which he criticized what he called “oppressive discipline.” It seems that the crucial question posed by Ferenczi is echoed in the practices imagined and implemented by Freinet: if the education received from adults plays a significant role in the subsequent pathology of each individual, what therapeutic and prophylactic means can be envisaged to counter such practices? Education in nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century Germany, to which Ferenczi was probably referring, was problematic on account of its brutality. It suppressed all forms of desire and willpower in the young. In a way, it is the dilemma of education itself that psychoanalysts and pedagogues are examining: the structuring role that adults play in guiding children through necessary experiences of frustration, enabling them to become civilized adults — but how ? Freinet’s proposal is clear, and is based on two major ideas that he later went on to develop: a new organization of the school and the classroom that would enable us to move away from the model of “oppressive” discipline toward a new model of discipline that he described as “liberating discipline,” understood as freeing the child from certain psychological disorders. The educator’s ability to act with solicitude can be understood as the possibility of showing tact in the relationship with children. Introduced by Ferenczi, tact takes on its full importance for the pedagogue. Ferenczi’s notion of tact includes the idea of striking a chord with someone by using the right words at the right time, without hurting their feelings. In the two short episodes from a co-op meeting that I’m presenting, I aim to show that female teachers are capable of exercising tact.
Réseaux sociaux