Synopsis

In a Europe traumatized by the First World War, educationalists point the finger of blame: the school, which produced "brave soldiers". The task now is to build peace and develop a new education for a generation of children who, it is hoped, will never wage war again. How can we educate them without surveillance and punishment? How can we help them to emancipate themselves? To make children happy is to make them better adults, according to those who embarked on the adventure. Their names are Rudolf Steiner, Maria Montessori, Célestin Freinet, Alexander S. Neill, Ovide Decroly, Paul Geheeb or Janusz Korczak, each of them inventing educational methods. A Swiss pedagogue, Adolphe Ferrière, brought them together in the Ligue internationale de l'éducation nouvelle. In Europe, the new schools focused on autonomy, co-education, learning through the senses, contact with nature and sport, which was often practiced in the nude, particularly in Germany, where naturism was in vogue. But there are conflicting conceptions. Should education be for the elite or for the masses? Should children be given complete freedom, or should discipline be introduced? Should pupils escape any program, even an emancipatory one? The dream of the new school collapsed with the rise of totalitarian ideologies in the 1930s. Drawing on rare archive footage, the film tells the story of a struggle for human progress that was built on, then shattered by, the ideologies of the 20th century, but whose legacy lives on.