The college, which currently accommodates 20 students, has been operating since September 2021. At the next school year, the high school will in turn open with ten places.
How to learn differently? Regain self-confidence? Find a taste for school again? The Terre et Crayons college created by Nelly Letessier in 2021 in Codognan was born to provide answers to these questions, which are sometimes painful for children and distressing for parents when schooling does not go smoothly. And Nelly Letessier knows what she’s talking about: “At 5 years old, my son developed school phobia, it was very complicated”she recalls. She trained, discovered alternative teaching methods, including Freinet, which emphasized cooperation, mutual aid and placed the child at the heart of their learning. This discovery was a revolution for the woman who was then a maths teacher in a middle school, a place where students who did not fit the mold, “those in difficulty but also those who go faster”, do not always find their place. “I changed the way I think and teach and I saw the results!”
A pedagogy of mutual aid and autonomy
At Terre et Crayons, teaching is based on the Freinet pedagogy, which favors mutual aid and autonomy. “The students co-construct the life of the establishment”, explains Nelly Letessier. Traditional learning is done with Pi correspondence courses, with the help of teachers. In addition, students discuss a problem twice a week in council and vote, they also organize projects (lottery, camping, hiking, etc.).
The establishment is not under contract, tuition is €6,000/year at middle school and €7,500/year at high school. “I am struggling to find patrons, subsidies…”, explains the director
The idea of a college then matured and Terre et Crayons was born in September 2021 with three teachers. “There was a lot of utopia at the beginning,” smiled the director. “We have a great team, it’s magical. Every day, I know why I get up”, she enthuses. Here, “no grades or compulsory homework”we discover autonomy, we open up curiosity, we learn to learn at our own pace. “But be careful, there is a framework”, reassures Nelly Letessier.
At the college, which can accommodate 35 students in total, “environ 75 %” are there because they are struggling in the traditional education system: loss of motivation, dropping out, harassment, phobia, dyslexia, the reasons are multiple. And the exciting “rebirths”: “A kid who saw himself in CAP gets back on his feet and considers the baccalaureate”. Some students only spend a few months there, others have been there since the opening and “four third-year students will join the classical high school”.
But the demand for a Terre et Crayons high school is there too. So, at the start of the school year, ten places will be created which will offer all general and STEM courses to prepare for the baccalaureate more peacefully. “A family moves from Switzerland so that their child can come to us!”
