New Education Principles According to Philippe Meirieu

Extract

[...] Education is not a training but a mediation between the educated and the educator. Unlike medicine, which recommends a unique treatment for all people with the same symptom, pedagogy puts the individual into action so that they can discover their own abilities. The role of the educator is therefore that of a mediator who stimulates the subject in its freedom to achieve the objectives they have set for themselves. Even if today we know the causes of certain blockages, the educator develops innovative and creative methods to allow children to develop their abilities. [...]

[...] Meirieu, it is a time when the moralizers (medicine, justice) have created a medical and judicial system that 'detects, monitors and excludes those who do not fit the norm'. Pedagogy cannot serve this liberal model that harms the flourishing of children." For him, education becomes 'very normalized' without leaving room for the subject's difference. For him, it would be a matter of providing an education that would allow children 'to understand the world in which they live' so that they can think for themselves and move forward 'for the common good'. [...]

[...] The current educational context is described by P. Meirieu as tyrannical and infantilizing, and he denounces a "pulsional capitalism" where everything is organized to advance the consumer society. In this society, one must act immediately to satisfy one's desires, one's pleasure. For Meirieu, we destroy the child's psyche by not making them understand that there is a time to realize their desires. The current educational system is based on "over-stimulation", "over-attention", "over-information". This prevents access to reflection, which allows one not to adhere to everything that the system proposes mediatically to "build critical thinking". [...]

[...] In fact, it conditions individuals to live only to satisfy their desires quickly without leaving time for reflection, doubt, or boredom. Today's children are just a reflection of adults and what they experience in society. The latter is purely individualistic, forgetting the social bond and advocating repression if there are any slips, on the one hand pushing consumption to excess and on the other hand repressing it. We are not leaving any room for the time needed to reflect, criticize, and propose new models of living together. [...]

[...] He must not be content to follow a approach based on diagnoses pronounced by the socio-medical vision of education. He must be able to explore other pedagogical methods to adapt to the needs of children in a spirit of freedom. That is to say, be a mediator between the learning that they are formal or informal, and the individual subject capable of knowing what is good or not for him. An open-minded spirit is an important quality for a pedagogue and must allow him to find creative and innovative solutions. [...]