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The French Educator Celestin Freinet (1896-1966): An Inquiry into How His Ideas Shaped Education Annotated Edition
Author(s): Victor Acker (Author)
- Publisher: Lexington Books
- Publication Date: 16 Feb. 2007
- Edition: Annotated
- Language: English
- Print length: 124 pages
- ISBN-10: 0739119230
- ISBN-13: 9780739119235
Book Description
The French Educator Celestin Freinet is a complete overview of the influence of this seminal figure. Although Celestin Freinet is virtually unknown outside of France, his ideas about the integration of technology into the classroom are more relevant now than ever. Victor Acker has succeeded in introducing this figure to the American-Anglophone world.The French Educator Celestin Freinet is Acker’s greatest achievement in his lifelong mission, which earned him knighthood from the French Government asa Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Palmes Academiques. Freinet was an advocate of employing correspondence in the classroom as well as using technology to aid learning. In this study, Acker explores the pedagogical ideas of Freinet with an eye toward contemporary education.The French Educator Celestin Freinet is an essential book on an essential figure in 20th century education.
Editorial Reviews
Review
Victor Acker brings to life the work and achievements of an extraordinary French educator, Célestin Freinet, who, between World Wars I and II, gave voice to thousands of children in largely remote locations through the use of school printing presses, school journals, and inter-scholastic exchanges. The communication fostered across schools and national boundaries was a forerunner of the Internet that now links students and their teachers around the world. What distinguishes the pedagogy of this pioneering educator is the use of communication technologies to encourage child-centered discovery and group learning that celebrated local cultural and community life while acquainting students with the awe-inspiring diversity of previously distant and unknown worlds-even though they may have been but one region away in the same country. Professor Acker’s scholarship is noteworthy for its degree of thoroughness in documenting the evolution, extent, and impact of maestro Célestin’s life work that has remained largely unknown outside France. This volume plus the earlier more biographical one by Acker have done the international education community a great service by providing historical and comparative perspectives on an educator whose vision and pedagogical methods are particularly relevant to those who view schooling as an agency for forming active, critical citizens who are concerned with the welfare of all on this globe.
Acker demonstrates eloquently that Freinet’s pedagogy of authentic experience, developed early in the 20th century, is still relevant.
About the Author
Victor Acker teaches philosophy, education, and English at Touro College’s Graduate School of Education.
