Celestin Freinet

Celestin Freinet, who lived from 15 October 1896 to 8 October 1966, was a French pedagogue and educational reformer. He was born in Provence, and after being wounded in the lung in the army he became a resolute pacifist. In 1920 he became an elementary schoolteacher in the village of Le Bar-sur-Loup, where he began to develop his teaching methods. In 1923 he purchased a printing press so that students could print free texts and class newspapers, and in 1924 he created the teachers' trade union C.E.L., from which arose the French teacher movement known as the Modern School Movement.