CÉLESTIN FREINET
Célestin Freinet (October 15, 1896 - October 8, 1966) was a noted French pedagogue, and educational
reformer.
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ØFreinet was born in Provence as the fifth of eight children.
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ØHis own schooldays were deeply unpleasant to him, and would affect his teaching methods and desire
for reform.
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ØIn 1915 he was recruited into the French army and  was wounded in the lung. He never recovered
completely, and suffered throughout his life from a shortage of breath.
Ø This was partly responsible for the nature of his educational innovations, in which pupil
activities took the place of the habitual ‘chalk and talk’ of the teacher.
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Brief History of Celestin Freinet

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ØIn 1920 he became an elementary school teacher in the village of Le Bar-sur-Loup. It was here that
Freinet began to develop his teaching methods.
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ØBetween 1929 and 1933 the Freinets developed and enlarged the movement they had founded.
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ØFreinet later left the public education system and in 1935 he founded an independent school nearby
in Vence.
ØThere, Freinet applied and developed his techniques until 1940.
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ØFreinet died in Vence in 1966. His movement continued after his death and Elise Freinet, the wife
of Celestin Freinet kept alive the memory of her husband.
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 FREINET TECHNIQUES
Freinet’s basic philosophy is that which underlies what he himself called ‘techniques for living’.
This formula is a way of expressing a fundamental distrust of everything formal, everything forced
and artificial, and having a grateful trust in nature.

Freinet Techniques
vLearning Printing Technique
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vFree Writing
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vSchool Correspondence
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vField Investigations
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vWork Schedule
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vSelf Correcting Files
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vClassroom Assembly
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The Essential Concepts of Freinet Pedagogy
During his periods of detention at the time of the Second World War Freinet wrote his core works on
pedagogy. There are 5 important concepts of Freinet’s pedagogy.

•Pedagogy of Work- Meaning that pupils learned by making useful products or providing useful
services.
•Co-operative Learning- Based  on  co-operation in the productive process.
•Enquiry-based  Learning- Trial and  error method involving group work.
•The Natural Method- Based  on  an  inductive, global approach.
•Centres of Interest- Based  on  children’s learning interests and curiosity.

The Left Critique of Freinet Pedagogy: 1st Wave
Between  1950  and  1954, Freinet was vigorously  attacked  by intellectuals of the French
Communist Party, who accused him of several things. These include:
- promoting a notion of school based on an outmoded rural ideal,
- downplaying the role of the teacher,
- stressing process rather than content,
- exaggerating the importance of children’s spontaneous behaviour thereby reinforcing principles
dear to bourgeois individualism (simply understood as selfishness for personal gain).

 The Freinet Myth and the Influence of the New Education movement
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qIt is generally believed, for example that Freinet’s war wound lay at the root of his efforts to
radically change his teaching methods.
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q Since he was unable to keep speaking for very long, he had to invent Co-operative Learning and
Child-Centred Techniques.
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qFreinet’s pedagogical theory is not only based practical techniques, but may  also  be seen in  a
larger philosophical and political context.
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qHis followers see him as a pedagogical genius and he is now recognized in the context of the
international New Education movement.

•The New Education has to be seen in the Romantic tradition of the philosophy of education.
•These educators recommended  a return to the origins of childhood which is regarded as “innocent”
and full of promise.
•The effort to adapt the child to  modern, industrial society  through  school is essentially  an
act of corruption.
•“Natural education” offers a way  to resolve these problems by  introducing community-based
activities such  as manual labour and  craft work. They  are considered as more healthy and
formative.
Freinet’s pedagogy stands in this tradition when he praises manual work and puts children’s needs
and desires above all.
A Child-Centred Pedagogy

Conclusion
oCelestin Freinet’s main  interest was always to  improve the social and cultural situation  of
working-class children.
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oHe believed that instead  of waiting  for a broader revolution changes are possible in classroom
right now.
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oNowadays Freinet pedagogy  is still a very  strong, international movement covering  the whole
range of school levels from kindergarten  to  university  and adult education.
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oLegacy- Freinet's work lives on in the name of Pédagogie Freinet, or the Modern School Movement,
practised in many countries worldwide.

References Used:
•http://www.ibe.unesco.org/fileadmin/user_upload/archive/publications/ThinkersPdf/freinete.pdf
•http://ecolesdifferentes.free.fr/SCHLEMMINGER.htm
•http://e-ducation.net/freinet_english.htm
•http://www.ph-karlsruhe.de/fileadmin/user_upload/dozenten/schlemminger/articles_publies/01History-
Freinet1.pdf