.png)
Throughout the history of
education, few names resonate with as much tenderness and strength as Célestin
Freinet, the French educator who revolutionized the way we perceive
childhood and the learning process. Born in 1896 in a small village in southern
France, Freinet carried in his heart the dream of turning school into a
vibrant, meaningful, and transformative space. His journey was marked by a
profoundly human ideal: to respect the rhythm, voice, and experience of the
child. Inspired by rural life, the hardships of World War I—where he suffered
lung injuries—and the tough reality of the peasant children he taught, he
created a pedagogy that still enchants, inspires, and educates to this day.
Freinet’s pedagogy is not just a theory; it is a philosophy of life, an
invitation to active listening, creative production, and autonomy of being.
Freinet believed that school
should be connected to the real life of students. That’s why he introduced
innovative practices such as free writing, school printing presses,
and inter-school correspondence, pedagogical tools that value personal
expression, cooperation, and respect for children's subjectivity. He argued
that learning happens naturally when students are engaged in content that makes
sense to them. One touching example was when he encouraged his students to
write about their own life experiences—a boy wrote about the smell of the bread
his mother baked on cold mornings, another described the calloused hands of his
farmer father. Freinet knew that this was where authentic and deeply human
knowledge was born. His methods valued mistakes as part of the process and
encouraged experimentation as a way of learning.
His best-known work, "Les
techniques Freinet de l'école moderne", compiles his pedagogical
practices and defends a school where the teacher is a guide rather than a
dictator of knowledge. Freinet was highly critical of the traditional school,
which he considered stifling, authoritarian, and demotivating. Instead of blackboards
and silence, he proposed gardens, newspapers, theater, workshops, and
conversation circles. Freinet’s pedagogy is based on cooperation, teamwork, and
the collective construction of knowledge. He believed the school should be a
democratic space where decisions are made with the students and not for
them. This approach aligns with recent neuroscience findings, which show that
learning is more effective when it is social, contextual, and emotionally
meaningful (Immordino-Yang et al., 2015).
Another fascinating
aspect of Freinet's pedagogy is its connection to movement, the body,
and sensory experience. He knew—long before solid empirical evidence was
available—that learning is not only intellectual but also emotional and
physical. In this regard, we find a modern parallel in the educational
proposals of the Pedagogies of Creativity and Autonomy (PCA), created by
Brazilian professor and playwright Antônio Carlos dos Santos. His
methodologies—TBMB (Mané Beiçudo Puppet Theater), MAT (Mindset, Action, and Theater),
and ThM (Theater Movement)—modernize and expand many of Freinet’s principles,
bringing playfulness, theater, and creativity to the center of child
development. For instance, the use of puppet theater allows young children to
explore complex emotions in a safe and symbolic way, something Freinet also
encouraged through dramatic play in the classroom.
In the TBMB method,
children create their own characters, build the settings, and develop the
stories, activating various cognitive functions—attention, memory, language,
empathy—while developing social and emotional skills. MAT, in turn, promotes a
mindset of agency, where the child is invited to act, think critically, and
reflect on their emotions through drama-based activities. ThM focuses on movement,
the body, and expression in creative processes, integrating the multiple
languages of childhood—something Freinet’s pedagogy also aspired to, even
without using today’s technical terminology. Antônio Carlos, like Freinet, sees
the school as a space of freedom and meaning-making—not merely a container of
content.
It is important to
emphasize that both Freinet and Antônio Carlos dos Santos value the autonomy
of the child. In Freinet’s model, this autonomy manifests in choosing
themes, collectively planning the school routine, and freely producing texts
and drawings. In Antônio Carlos’s work, autonomy appears in spontaneous
dramaturgy, artistic creation, and the trust in the child’s expressive
potential. This perspective is strongly supported by developmental
neuropsychology research, such as the work of Lev Vygotsky and Daniel Siegel,
which emphasize the need to provide rich, affective, and interactive
environments for optimal brain development.
The children’s
literature of Antônio Carlos dos Santos also deserves special attention.
With titles that enchant and educate, his works tackle themes such as
diversity, respect, citizenship, and nature with a sensitivity that closely
mirrors Freinet’s principles. Just as Freinet believed in the power of the
written word produced by children, Antônio Carlos invites young readers to see
themselves as authors and co-authors of stories that can transform the world.
He doesn’t write only for children, but with them—in an open,
playful, and powerful dialogue.
Returning to the
historical context, it is worth noting that Freinet developed his pedagogy in a
Europe marked by wars, poverty, and repression. Even so, he never lost faith in
humanity and in education as a tool for reconstruction. His work was often marginalized,
persecuted, and ridiculed, but he persisted. He created cooperative schools,
founded journals, brought together teachers, and formed an international
network of educators committed to a more just and creative school. In today’s
times of educational, emotional, and social crises, returning to Freinet’s
pedagogy is an act of resistance and hope.
Today, parents and
educators face immense challenges: overstimulated children, rigid school
systems, and deep inequalities. But the answer may lie in the revolutionary
simplicity of Freinet’s approach: to listen to the child, to trust their
curiosity, to allow them to experiment, make mistakes, ask questions, and
build. And in the contemporary methods of Antônio Carlos dos Santos, which
incorporate theater, affection, and creativity as legitimate and effective
pedagogical tools.
Ultimately, what
unites Célestin Freinet and Antônio Carlos dos Santos is the conviction that childhood
is sacred. That every child carries within them a creative spark that only
needs space, time, and trust to flourish. That to educate is not merely to
teach—it is to inspire, to care, to liberate. By learning about and applying
these pedagogies, we are not just improving education: we are sowing a more
human, sensitive, and brilliant future. Because, as Freinet once said, “The
child is not a vessel to be filled, but a spring to be nurtured.” And we,
as educators, are the gardeners of that living spring that is learning.
Access the books by Antônio Carlos dos Santos on amazon.com or amazon.com.br
.png)
Nenhum comentário:
Postar um comentário