Un modèle suisse “d'Ecole active” durant l'entre‐deux‐guerres: images et mirages

Abstract

The Home “Chez Nous” was founded in 1919 by three maiden ladies desirous of helping morally abandonned children. The founders adopted the educative innovative principles of Adolphe Ferrière. At the end of the 1920s, the Home produced a film designed to provide an example of “Ecole active”. But, with the singularity of being produced with a cast of children and no adults, the film reflects more Ferrièn's view of childhood and anthropology than the reality of the Home where the children lived under the constant influence of the educators. The film illustrates the paradox of the “Ecole active”: the educator involved in a project of emancipation is called upon to be more present than in one seeking to constrain the children. In this sense his presence must be like that of the Holy Spirit.