Bonaventure – an Alternative School in France
To
the North of Bordeaux, South of La Rochelle and poking into the Bay of Biscay
like a flipper on the body of France, lies the Isle d’Oleron.
With a maximum height of four metres, and seemingly built of stray sand dunes,
it looks as if any rise in sea level would have its inhabitants scurrying across
the huge modern bridges that connect it with the mainland. Apart from farming,
with vineyards, there is some tourism; there are oyster beds and sea food
collection, salt-pans, a few woods and, rejoicing in its climate, which is like
a warmer version of that of County Kerry, just outside the village of Chaucre
you can find an alternative school.
Why?
What? How?
In
1982, when their daughter was reaching school age, Thyde Roselle and Jean Marc
Raynaud, both active in the French anarchist movement, looked at the
alternatives in education for her. Finding none that were acceptable, they
decided to create an alternative school on their doorstep, if support could be
found to do this.
About half a hectare of land adjoining their garden became available, and with
financial assistance, they bought it.
About 250 people, who were supporters of its general aims, came together and
built it in a short time. It is about the same size and design as a small
village hall, built out of breezeblock, with an extra room built on to its
rectangular shape to act as a combined kitchen and refectory. Luckily
Jean-Marc’s father was a carpenter and was able to oversee the operation.
Most of these people were members of the “Association Bonaventure” which is
made up of sympathisers with the aim to create an educational environment
outside the clumsy tentacles of the French state system with its emphasis on
grading and inspecting, and its national curriculum with rigid teaching, rather
than flexible learning.
We were able to attend the start of one of the support conferences for
Bonaventure which are held regularly to plan and discuss the running of the
school. Supporters came from a wide spread of French regions, and some had made
lengthy journeys to be there, including senior citizens from the Pyrenees and
people from the North of France.
Many of the members of the association contribute a regular sum of 150 francs
per month to Bonaventure. The running costs of the school are reckoned to be
7500 francs a month (about £750) – this excludes the cost of the teacher
(usually getting an income from Social Security), and the tasty vegetarian
school meals, which are prepared by the parents on a rota basis.
When
you walk into Bonaventure, after stacking your outdoor shoes along with the
children’s, you encounter a warm environment. There is a photocopier, two
computers (one is a bit old); there are tables and chairs and a library. A long
window gives an enticing view on to the half hectare of woods that go with the
school, and which make for adventurous playtimes.
There are nine young people, aged from five up to ten years, and there is one
teacher. Around 9.30 a.m. the young people arrive and settle down to a meeting
to share news and plan the day. After this they settle down to work: our first
session was maths. It looks a bit like pre- national curriculum England. The
lesson is individualised with the teacher helping each youngster as necessary:
the youngest children are involved in drawing and colouring rather than formal
maths. The seven to eight year olds were doing maths from a workbook and the
nine and ten year olds were doing “regular” maths from books, and they had
learned to write neatly and attractively. It was a quiet lesson.
Break
was at 11.00 a.m. We joined in a game of Wolf and Sheep. They decided that the
three LIB ED guests were to be the Wolves and the children soon developed
foolproof tactics to outwit the LIB ED wolves and rush back to base and free the
captured sheep.
The woods, with their tall trees, bushes and brambles make a wonderful
environment for the young people to have adventures, games, and build tree
houses and dens. There are a couple of local dogs that join in the fun as well.
In an afternoon there are different activities. For one afternoon a
“ludocaire” (we would call her a play therapist) had been invited.
She had brought a number of ‘cooperative’ board games which mostly
consisted of the children working together to achieve a desired end. The games
produced a sense of relaxed concentration amongst the young people.
The school encourages parents and outsiders to come in and bring activities with
them. The LIB ED trio produced a guitar and a fiddle and encouraged the young
people to sing Frere Jacques – which they did know, and Le Coucou – which
they did not. The teacher was able to make a quick and successful translation of
“Rabbit had no tail at all” and the young people were prepared to do a
simple dance to a few Irish and Appalachian Folk tunes.
At lunch, a parent does the food preparation but the youngsters, on a rota
basis, set the tables and do the clearing up. No-one has to eat anything they
don’t want, but it is expected that you will eat all the food that you have
served for yourself. The children also clear up at the end of the day, finishing
at 4.00 p.m. For the younger ones, it seems to be quite a long day and there was
a bit of tetchiness in the air. Young people are not perfect and a few started
scuffles with each other. A psychotherapist has advised the school on some
techniques for conflict resolution – but the Lib Ed team did not get round to
finding out what they were.
On the Friday there was a “moot” where everyone sat down and made
contributions to the “boite de ralages” and the “boite de bravos”
(literally, the ‘groan box’ and the ‘hooray box’). This necessitated
sitting still round the table at the end of Friday and the young people managed
quite well, discussing quite earnestly the issues that were raised as the pieces
of paper were drawn from the boxes one by one
Issues
and Debates
There
are issues that need discussing and refining within Bonaventure. Some members of
the Association are keenly aware of this and healthy debate is maintained about
the directions for the school, as well as how to enhance its progress.
One of the most pressing is the issue of the teacher. There is one teacher who
works on a regular basis at the school. Although there is good parental support
and other adults are available quite often, the job must be quite lonely at
times – even if there are only nine children. In fact it could be said that
the school would be a better place if there were a few more children. This would
give a wider spectrum for friendships. There
were eleven, but a couple of parents left the island at short notice and took
their two children with them while we were there.
A problem for the school is that according to its constitution the teacher can
only work there for a maximum of three years. This was written in so that one
person would not get too much entrenched power over the place. However, the
downside of this is that there can be a lack of continuity, and the history of
the school can become lost. The school has a tendency to attract young teachers
who may need time to think through their ideas and work out an alternative
pedagogy. Thus keeping the alternative and anarchist nature of the school alive
can be difficult.
The LIB ED team were pleased to have been invited to the school and stayed with
the parents of two of the children, both of whom were enjoying their experiences
of this alternative education. It was interesting meeting an ex-student who had
had to move on when she had attained secondary age, but looked back with great
nostalgia at her primary years in an alternative to the state system.
M F G & E C M
Since
LIB ED visited Bonaventure, we have received this letter…
Bonaventure
has found itself at the end of the year in a situation that we do not like -
absence of connections with other groups, loss of international relations which
we had had up to that time, and so on. For
this reason we have decided to suspend school activities for the year 2001 -
2002, in order to reflect on the functioning of our association, and to avoid
such a situation arising at Bonaventure again. We hope to have the children back
again at the beginning of next school year in 2002.
But we will not be idle and have taken a decision to widen our activities
with adults:
1. Militants from the Bakunin Group of the F.A. should soon be setting up
a philosophical café. Speakers will be regularly invited to speak about current
affairs or subjects connected with the libertarian movement.
2. A book about the Centre for Libertarian Education's ten years of experimentation will be written, based on the evidence supplied by children, parents and supporters, but also on the archives. This work ought also to allow us to identify a better way of functioning for the Bonaventure structure, and to prepare confidently for the next return of the children.
3. From the Easter school holidays we will receive children who would like
to come for discovery visits in our natural surroundings (the animals which live
at Oléron, the marshes, the oyster farms, etc.) In this way they can learn
geography, history, and natural sciences while they walk around and visit the
island of Oléron. It will be an
opportunity for people who may join in the future to get to know more about us
and to investigate the place.
4. Workshops in literacy and in ‘catching up’ will also be organised,
principally for people living in the area.
5. Workshops on introduction to the internet are also planned, so
that we can make this means of communication our own and not a privilege for the
few.
6. Courses in political and syndicalist education, dealing with
libertarian ideals and practices, are being designed. Members of Bonaventure are intending to start them off,
leaving open the opportunity for others who would like to do so to take over the
organisation. If this happens, Bonaventure would be pleased to allow them to
make use of its buildings.
7. Furthermore Bonaventure is working, and has been working for many
years, with AUPEJ, a Senegalese association for popular education, as well as
with the Freinet schools. We are hoping to be able to use this year to improve
this collaboration between different organisations.
8. Finally, Bonaventure is foreseeing the possibility of organising
international meetings about non-authoritarian and libertarian education. Not
date has yet been fixed for these, because of the size of the project and the
amount of work that it entails, but we will keep our contacts informed regularly
about progress.