Graham R (Ed.) - Anarchism - A Documentary History of Libertarian Ideas Volume One - From Anarchy to Anarchism (300 CE to 1939)

Anarchy And Education /231
I know very well that we could not thus realize all our hopes, that we should often
be forced, for lack of knowledge, to employ undesirable methods; but a certitude
would sustain us in our effort, namely, that even without reaching our aim completely
we should do more and better in our still imperfect work than the present
school accomplishes_ I like the free spontaneity of a child who knows nothing, better
than the word knowledge and intellectual deformity of a child who has been subjected
to our present education.
What we have attempted at Barcelona others have attempted elsewhere, and
we have all seen that the work is possible. And I think it should be begun without delay.
We should not wait until the study of the child has been completed before undertaking
the renovation of the school; if we must wait fo r that, we shall never do
anything. We will apply what we do know and, progressively, all that we shall learn.
Already, a complete plan of rational education is possible, and, in such schools as we
conceive, children may develop, happy and free, according to their natural tendencies.
We shall labour to perfect and extend it. (Further reading: Paul Avrich, The Modern
School Movement, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1980)
66. Sebastien Faure: Libertarian Education (1910)
Sebastien Faure (1858- 1 942) first became active in the anarchist movement in Paris in the
late 1880's. He was a talented public speaker, going on numerous tours througllOut France to
spread the anarchist idea. In 1894 he was put on trial, along with jean Grave (already imprisoned
fo r his anarchist propaganda) and several other prominent anarchists, such as Emile
Pouget (1860-1931) and the art critic, Felix Feneon (1861-1944), in what became known as
the ''Trial of the Thirty. " Despite the public being excludedfrom Faure's cross-examination
out of fear of his oratorical skills, he was acquitted along with most of the defendants. 111
1895, with Louise Michel, he launched the anarchist paper, Le Libertaire, popularizing the
use of the word "libertarian" as a synonym fo r "anarchist. " In 1904 he founded afree school
called "La Ruche" (the Beehive), which lasted until 1917, when, amid war, it was forced to
close. The following excerpts from Faure's 1910 pampllfet, "La Ruche"-Propos
d'Educateur, have been translated by Paul Sharkey.
WHEN IT COMES INTO THE WORLD, when its existence is like a blank sheet upon
which nothing has yet be written, the child is neither good nor bad. He is both. The
heir to all preceding generations, he carries within himself, in germ, all the qualities
and all the shortcomings of his ancestors; all their virtues and all their vices, all their
strengths and all their weaknesses, all their ignorance and all their learning, all their
savagery and all their indulgence, all their defeats and all their victories, all their