Session Information
Contribution
In 2007 one is celebrating both the 100th anniversary of the Ecole de l'Ermitage in Uccle (Brussels) and the 75th anniversary of its founder's death, Ovide Decroly (1871-1932). The school already received many visitors during Decroly's lifetime and became, especially after his death, a site of pilgrimage for those interested in New Education. Today the school seems to have lost a bit of its aura, although she is still alive and kicking, comprising almost 1000 pupils (nursery, primary, and secondary school). Nevertheless, for those who are taking a closer look at the school's history there can only be one conclusion: the school ceaselessly had and still has to fight to assure its existence, to a great extent due to a chronic state of financial penury - the government is granting the school a subsidy since 1921, but the school has e.g. to maintain the school buildings itself. In this paper we first want to focus on the survival strategies Decroly and the decrolyens have developed in order to cope with this financial situation, in particular on the non-profit organizations (e.g. the parental committee) that play an important role within the school administration, the fancy fairs, the fundraising, and so on. Besides, the school had an elitist status; the enrolment fee was rather high, and most of the parents were doctors, advocates, jurists, professors at the Brussels University, etcetera. But, as there are always two sides to every question, it is wrong to focus simply and solely on an organisation chart and those survival strategies. The school has passed through several serious crises. Each time, it seems that the sense of belonging to a group, to 'the decrolyens', has been of crucial importance to defuse a crisis. Decroly became an idol and the Decroly-method an ideal. Both idol and ideal became icons that played a determining role within the school's history. As a result, we should not only focus on the financial situation (and the school organisation), but also on the way in which a crisis was related to (a threat to) these icons. Therefore, we have to investigate the role both icons played during a centenary (even after Decroly's death). In order to enable this, we've selected three crises casu quo cases. The first case is Decroly's death, undeniably the most important of all crises, for the school lost its soul, its moving spirit. During almost two years, from September 1932 to April 1934, the 'Hamaïde Case' put a time-bomb under the school's existence. The second case is what we've called the 'silent years' (1914-18 and 1940-45). Twice the school struggled through horrible times; two wars kept the school in a state of suspense. The third case is what we've called the 'big removal'. As a result of the construction of the Brussels ring-road, in the beginning of the 1970s, the school had to be compulsory purchased. The school threatened to lose its body, one might say. But, three times the school succeeded in turning the corner… and, as we will argue, three times both icons (Decroly and/or the Decroly-method) played an important role. We were able to work at the archives of the Ecole de l'Ermitage, located at the Centre d'Etudes decrolyennes in Uccle (Brussels). Our focus on both the financial and institutional situation, on the one hand, and three cases/crises, on the other hand, enables us to demonstrate how and to what extent the existence (financial as well as regarding organisation, curriculum, and so on) of the Ecole de l'Ermitage depended on strong internal dynamics, based on an elitist status, a still remaining educational hero worship, and an unrestrained belief in the Decroly-method. We have every reason to believe that this isn't an exceptional case, and that one also might apply these findings to other cases of so-called 'progressive' or 'alternative' schools. 1. Depaepe, Marc, Simon, Frank & Van Gorp, Angelo. "The Canonization of Ovide Decroly as a "saint" of the New Education." History of Education Quarterly 43, no. 2 (2003): 224-249. 2. Van Gorp, Angelo. "Ovide Decroly, a Hero of Education. Some Reflections on the Effects of Educational Hero Worship." In: Paul Smeyers & Marc Depaepe (eds.). Educational Research: Why 'What Works' doesn't work. Dordrecht: Springer, 2006, 37-50.
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