Alternatives schools

The notion I'm going to speak about is : the idea of progress, which can be defined, as an improvement, a development or a change. It can be a technical, scientific or social advance which contributes to make the world a better place.

So, in relation to this notion, my presentation will deal with alternative schools.

Montessori, Steiner, Freinet, family learning ... Parents are increasingly choosing to teach their children differently. The problem, is a school system that disappoints. The challenge, is the desire of an approach based on autonomy, the pleasure of learning, creativity, and also respecting the eco-citizen issues of the time. Renowned to be reserved for the privileged, are these unusual teaching methods the school's future ? That is what we are going to discover. First of all, I'm going to talk about a quote, then a film, and finally an outstanding community.

Adolphe Ferriere, a swiss educator, founder in 1921 of a progressive education movement once wrote :

"The school was created how the devil ordered. The child loves nature, therefore he has been closed in a room. The child wants to move — but he has been forced to be motionless. He likes to work with his hands, but he has been taught theories and ideas. He likes to speak — but he has been ordered to be silent. He aspires to understand — but he has been ordered to learn by heart. And then in this conditions, children have learnt things that they would never learnt in other situation. They have learnt to lie and pretend.

And here is what happened. As the Devil wanted, a lot of children became passive and they lost all the interest for life. Their happiness and health were taken off. Love and kindness disappeared. Their thoughts became gray and dull, their souls became stale, their hearts embittered. And that school perished, as the Devil desired... "

This quote shows us that the school system needs to be improved, because the students are not really happy and learn the wrong way. And it is smartly made by the writer, by using metaphorically the Devil, as the creator of this bad school system, showing that school may look like hell for a young child.

As the film Captain Fantastic, or the Amish community, we will see that living or teaching differently with unusual methods, is the choice of people that school system or society disappoints.

Let's talk about the film now.

Released in theaters in 2016, Captain Fantastic tells the life of a family who chose to be self-sufficient in a forest of the American northwest. A utopia which questions our educational certainties.

Accused on contaminating the free spirits of his children, the school is banished by Ben Cash. Which doesnt prevent him from teaching his children with severity. As proof of the efficiency of his educational methods, his elder son Bodevan succeeds in being accepted in the best American universities.

And his youngest daughter knows by heart the American Constitution and has impressive medicine notions.

His children are encouraged to argue and defend their point of view : When one of his teens confesses that she is reading Lolita, she is asked to deliver an elaborate and complex analysis of the book, and she

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