ROLLAND, Romain (1866-1944)

ROLLAND, Romain (1866-1944)

Autograph manuscript signed « Romain Rolland »
N.p, April 1928, 1 p. in-4°
Small tear discreetly repaired on central fold

Prophetic text by the writer pleading for the New Education, which has become the foundation of today’s education system

« La question de l’Éducation nouvelle est la plus grave du temps présent. Elle n’est et ne doit être rien moins qu’une Réforme de la vie profonde, analogue à celle du XVI^e siècle. Une puissante hérésie qui renouvelle les forces vitales de l’humanité. Les civilisations, d’Europe et d’Amérique étouffent sous la gaine d’idées pétrifiées, de préjugés mortels. L’Esprit est astreint, dès l’enfance, à un automatisme absurde, aux mains des gardiens d’abus. Il a un besoin urgent d’air libre et de soleil, de confiance en soi, de raison virile et sereine qui use harmonieusement de sa saine liberté. Il ne pourra les conquérir sans luttes. Trop d’abus anciens et nouveaux ont intérêt à entraver le réveil de l’Âme, et lui barre la route, avec des pseudo-vérités, mortes et meurtrières. Mais c’est à tous les hommes, à toutes les femmes, de raison et de cœur sains, honnêtes et robustes, d’oser faire leur choix entre ses libérateurs et ses oppresseurs masqués.
Romain Rolland »

Emerging at the end of the twentieth century, the New Education became an international pedagogical movement in the 1920s. Rolland, disappointed with the so-called traditional method, did not turn away from the pedagogical thing. Himself a teacher at the Sorbonne, he was interested in the new practices of his time and showed a great interest in the progressive experiments of new pedagogies. It was during his stay in Switzerland, during the First World War, that he met the Swiss pedagogue Adolphe Ferrière (1879-1960), a major figure in the New Education movement. Adherents to the cause pleaded for a profound reform of education, based on scientific knowledge of the child. They advocated a global education, giving equal importance to the different educational fields: intellectual and artistic, but also physical, manual and social. Many of these practices were widespread and today form the basis of the education system as we know it.

Written in April 1928, this text first appeared in the German newspaper Das werdende Zeitalter. It is intended for an article by the pedagogue Karl Wilker. He intends to bring together the statements of prominent personalities on the need for a new education. The text was published the following year in the form of an introductory statement in issue 50 of Pour l’Ère nouvelle (Sept. 1929).