1 See, for example, Antonio Nóvoa, “Regards nouveaux sur l'éducation nouvelle,” in Le don de la parole. Mélanges offerts à Daniel Hameline pour son soixante-cinquième anniversaire ed. Nanine Charbonnel (Bern: Peter Lang, 1997), 86; Marcelo Caruso, “¿Una Nave sin Puerto Definitivo? Antecedentes, tendencias e interpretaciones alrededor del movimiento de la Escuela Nueva,” in La Escuela como Máquina de Educar. Tres escritos sobre un proyecto de la modernidad eds. Pablo Pineau, Inès Dussel, and Marcelo Caruso (Buenos Aires: Paidós, 2001), 93–134.Google Scholar

2 Röhrs, Hermann and Lenhart, Volkert, eds., Progressive Education Across the Continents (Frankfurt a.M.: Peter Lang, 1995).Google Scholar

3 Cohen, Sol Challenging Orthodoxies. Toward a New Cultural History of Education (New York: Peter Lang, 1999), 87–101; Kevin J. Brehony, “From the Particular to the General, The Continous to the Discontinous: Progressive Education Revisited,” History of Education 30:5 (September 2001): 413–432.Google Scholar

4 Oelkers, Jürgen, Reformpädagogik. Eine kritische Dogmengeschichte, 3th ed. (Weinheim/München: Juventa, 1996).Google Scholar

5 Whipple, Guy Montrose ed., The Twenty-Eighth Yearbook of the National Society for the Study of Education. Preschool and Parental Education (Bloomington, IL: Public School Publishing Company, 1929), 17.Google Scholar

6 For example René Hubert, Histoire de la Pédagogie (Paris: PUF, 1949), 129; Jean Palméro, Histoire des Institutions et des Doctrines pédagogiques par les textes (Paris: Sudel, 1955), 404–408; Arnould Clausse, Introduction à l'Histoire de l'Education (Brussels: De Boeck, 1951), 128–154; idem., Essai sur l'Ecole Nouvelle (Brussels: Labor, 1950); Johan Janssen and S. Visser, Van Plato tot Decroly: studieboek der historische pedagogiek, 15th ed. (Purmerend: Muusses, 1966), 284.Google Scholar

7 Dubreucq, Francine “Jean-Ovide Decroly (1871–1932),“ in Penseurs de l'éducation ed. Morsy, Zaghloul (Paris: Editions UNESCO, 1994), 1: 251–276. This can also be consulted at http://www.unesco.org/education/pdf/3426.pdf. We want to thank Mrs. Dubreucq, former director of the Ecole Decroly-Ecole de l'Ermitage and the present director of the Centre d'Etudes decrolyennes (C.E.D.) in Brussels (Uccle, Avenue Montana, 15), as well as the other staff of the C.E.D. for their cooperation in the heuristic process and for placing Decroly's archives at our disposal.Google Scholar

8 Schwegman, Marjan Maria Montessori 1870–1952. Kind van haar tijd. Vrouw van de wereld (Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 1999).Google Scholar

9 Guisset, Marie-Agnès “Biographie de Ovide Decroly“ (Documents bio-bibliographiques, Uccle: C.E.D., n.d.).Google Scholar

10 Clausse, See Arnould Essai sur l'Ecole Nouvelle (Brussels: Labor, 1950), 73.Google Scholar

11 About Pestalozzi see: Marc Depaepe and Hans Van Crombrugge, “Using or Abusing the Educational Past?—Some Methodological Reflections on the Place of Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi in the Educational Historiography,” in Pestalozzi in China. International Academic Symposium on the Occasion of the Publication of Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi's Selected Works in Chinese ed. Hans Gehrig (Zürich: Pestalozzianum, 1995), 51–62; about Comenius: see Johan C. Sturm and Leendert F. Groenendijk, “On the Use and Abuse of Great Educators: The Case of Comenius in the Low Countries,” Paedagogica Historica XXXV/1 (1999): 111–124.Google Scholar

12 Depaepe, Marc “Entre pédagogie et histoire. Questions et remarques sur l'évolution des objectifs de l'enseignement de l'histoire de l'éducation,“ Histoire de l'éducation 77 (January 1998): 3–18.Google Scholar

13 Mouchet, Claude “La Reformpädagogik, controverses autour d'une histoire et d'un concept,“ Paedagogica Historica XXXI/3 (1995): 769–785; Heinz-Elmar Tenorth, “Reformpädagogik. Erneuter Versuch, ein erstaunliches Phänomen zu verstehen,” Zeitschrift für Pädagogik 40:4 (1994): 602. Or, in other words: “au-delà de l'histoire hagiographique ou polémique…”, after the subtitle of Daniel Hameline, Jürgen Helmchen, and Jürgen Oelkers, eds., L'éducation nouvelle et les enjeux de son histoire. Actes du colloque international des Archives Institut Jean-Jacques Rousseau: L'éducation nouvelle, au-delà de l'histoire hagiographique ou polémique, Genève, Avril 1992 (Bern: Peter Lang, 1992).Google Scholar

14 Tenorth stated it himself—on the occasion of a review of Winfried Böhm & Jürgen Oelkers, eds., Reformpädagogik kontrovers (Würzburg: Ergon-Verlag, 1995)—with regard to the “euphoric enthusiasm” of the practitioners by the reform pedagogy: “Die ‘Euphorie’ der Praktiker wird sich von bildungshistorischer Forschung wahrscheinlich nicht entnüchtern lassen; den für den Praktiker bleibt das Reformmotiv unentbehrlich, weil er sich mit eigenen Wirklichkeit handelend anders nicht umgehen kann. Jürgen Oelkers sagt daher zu Recht, was zur praktischen Legitimation und Kontinuität der Reformpädagogik als einer Handlungsfiktion gesagt werden muß: “Wie anders sollte man die Pädagogik pädagogisieren?”, also auf die Erfahrung der Pädagogik anders antworten als durch den pädagogischen Mut, legitime Erziehung immer neu zu verstehen?”. (Paedagogica Historica XXXII/3 (1996): 791.)Google Scholar

15 Leenders, Hélène Montessori im faschistischen Italien. Geschichte einer Rezeption (Bad Heilbrunn: Klinkhardt, 2000).Google Scholar

16 For a general approach, see, for example, Marc Depaepe, De pedagogisering achterna. Aanzet tot een genealogie van de pedagogische mentaliteit in de voorbije 250 jaar (Leuven/Amersfoort: Acco, 2000³), 285; Idem, “Demythologizing the Educational Past: An Endless Task in History of Education,” Historical Studies in Education/ Revue d'histoire de l'éducation IX/2 (1997): 208–223; Idem, “Demythologizing the Educational Past: An Endless Task in History of Education,” in History of Education: Major Themes, vol. 1, Debates on the History of Education ed. Roy Lowe (New York: Routledge, 2000), chapter 23.Google Scholar

17 Hameline, Daniel “Avant-propos,“ in L'éducation nouvelle et les enjeux de son histoire eds. Hameline, Helmchen, and Oelkers, II.Google Scholar

18 Henk, C de Wolf, “Ovide Decroly,” in Onderwijskundigen van de twintigste eeuw eds. van der Meer, Q.L. and Bergman, H. (Groningen: Wolters-Noordhoff, 1975), 73–86.Google Scholar

19 van der Waal, W.C. Alles was reeds van verre tijden … Inleiding tot de studie van de historische pedagogiek (Amsterdam: Duwaer, [before 1961]), 98.Google Scholar

20 Barbara, C de Jong, “Jan Ligthart (1859–1916). Een schoolmeester-pedagoog uit de Schilderswijk,” (Ph.D. diss., University of Utrecht, 1996).Google Scholar

21 An example by way of illustration is the mention of an erroneous date of death cited in, among others, Jozef E. Verheyen, “Decroly (Prof. Dr. Ovide),” in Paedagogische Encyclopaedie I-II eds. Jozef E. Verheyen and Rommert Casimir (Antwerp: De Sikkel, 1939) 329. One could construct a geneaology of such an error; we will have occasion to point out other errors.Google Scholar

22 Respectively to Jozef E. Verheyen, “Allocution—Toespraak,” in Hommage au Dr. Decroly. Huldebetoon aan Dr. Decroly, 23-24-25 Novembre—November 1952. Discours Prononcés lors de la Séance Solennelle qui a eu lieu dans la Grande Salle du Palais des Beaux-Arts à Bruxelles le Dimanche 23 Novembre 1952. Toespraken gehouden tijdens de Plechtige Zitting die gehouden werd in de Grote Zaal van het Paleis voor Schone Kunsten te Brussel op Zondag 23 November 1952 (1952), 24–25; Valère Van Coppenolle, De activiteit op school. Bondig historisch overzicht (Torhout: Pyck, 1939), 96–97 [= Opvoedkundige brochurenreeks van de Studiekringen van het Christen Onderwijz-ersverbond 12]; Georges Meuris, “Une belle page de l'histoire de la pédagogie: la figure et l'œuvre d'Ovide Decroly (1871–1932),” La Revue des Ecoles 87 (1981–1982): 198–208; Fernand Dubois, “Il est entré dans la légende,” Vers l'Ecole active (October 1932): 1.Google Scholar

23 Guisset, “Biographie de Ovide Decroly“.Google Scholar

24 Oelkers, Jürgen “Die “neue Erziehung” im Diskurs der Reformpädagogik,” in Die neue Erziehung. Beiträge zur Internationalität der Reformpädagogik eds. Oelkers, Jürgen and Osterwalder, Fritz (Bern: Peter Lang, 1999), 13–41. Reference is made here to Decroly who, as the founder of the philosophy “pour la vie, par la vie,” was promoted to spiritual thinker of pedagogy “vom Kinde aus”, “der platonische Ewigkeit vor Augen hat,” which of itself stands pretty much in opposition to his alleged empirical research. But, of course, this is not the only paradox in the “New Education.”Google Scholar

25 Whether she succeeded in this is another question. The opposite appears more likely to us, that life adapted to the school. See Marc Depaepe et al., Order in Progress. Everyday Educational Practice in Primary Schools: Belgium, 1880–1970 (Louvain: Leuven University Press, 2000), 265. [= Studia Paedagogica New Series 29.]Google Scholar

26 Amélie Hamaïde (1888–1970): as a teacher who graduated in 1909, she received the diploma of pedagogue from the Université Libre de Bruxelles in 1921. After a time as directress of the Ecole de l'Ermitage, she founded her own Ecole nouvelle Amélie Hamaïde in Ixelles (Brussels) in 1934.Google Scholar

27 Leenders, Montessori im faschistischen Italien. Google Scholar

28 Amélie Hamaïde, La méthode Decroly (Neuchâtel: Delachaux et Niestlé, 1922).Google Scholar

29 Introduction by Edouard Claparède in Ibid., X. Carlo Trombetta, Edouard Claparède. La famiglia, L'infanzia, Gli studi, Bibliografia (Roma: Bulzoni Editore, 1976) cites several times the bond of friendship that presumably existed between Decroly and Claparède but also points to the few book reviews that the latter devoted to his Brussels friend. Did Claparède thus want to spare his friend? Or did he leave critical observations on Decroly's work to others? There is no definite answer to this but it is certain that little correspondence with Decroly is preserved in the Claparede's impressive body of correspondence at the University Library of Geneva.Google Scholar

30 Hamaïde, La méthode Decroly, 3.Google Scholar

31 Cornelia Philippi-Siewertsz van Reesema, Uit en over de werken van Prof. Dr. Ovide Decroly (Groningen/ Den Haag/ Batavia: Wolters, 1931), 3.Google Scholar

32 Ibid., 5.Google Scholar

33 Singer, Elly “C. Philippi-Siewertsz van Reesema (1880–1963) pionierster op het gebied van de kinderstudies en kleuteronderwijs,“ in Vrouwelijke pedagogen in Nederland eds. Van Essen, Mineke and Lunenberg, Mieke (Nijkerk: Intro, 1991), 106–116; Schwegman, Maria Montessori 1870–1952; Leenders, Montessori im faschistischen Italien. Google Scholar

34 van Reesema, Philippi-Siewertsz Vit en over de werken, 5–6.Google Scholar

35 Jadot, René “Nos écoles à l'oeuvre,“ Bulletin mensuel des oeuvres scolaires d'Angleur VI/3 (October 1932): 1–2.Google Scholar

36 Idem, “L'enfance de Decroly et la Pensée du Maître,“ Bulletin de la Société française de pédagogie VI/6 (1933): 1–2. Also La Vie Pédagogique, the supplement of l'Etincelle, published this article in this same year.Google Scholar

37 The committee consisted of G. Boon, L. Dahlem, F. Dubois, A. Hamaïde, J.E. Verheyen, N. Smelten and L. Poirinot. See “Aux lecteurs,” in Hommage au Dr. Decroly (Saint-Nicolas-W.: Scheerders-Van Kerckhove, [1933]), 5.Google Scholar

38 Depaepe, Marc Dams, Kristof, and Simon, Frank, “'La vie et l'école'. Analyse du discours rénovateur de Joseph Emile Verheyen,” Bildungsforschung und Bildungspraxis/Education et Recherche/ Educazione e ricerca. Schweizerische Zeitschrift für Erziehungswissenschaft/ Revue suisse des sciences de l'éducation/ Rivista svizerra di scienze dell'educazione, XXI/1 (1999): 9–32; Marc Depaepe, “Experimentelle Pädagogik, Reformpädagogik und pädagogische Praxis. Überlegungen über ihre wechselseitigen Beziehungen, dargestellt am Beispiel der Versuchsschulen von Jozef Emiel Verheyen in Zaventem und Gent (1923–1940),” in Die neue Erziehung eds. Oelkers and Osterwalder, 183–205; Marc Depaepe and Angelo Van Gorp, “From paedology to experimental pedagogy. Evolution of the criteria for a ‘scientific’ educational research in Belgium before World War II on the basis of the works of Medard Schuyten (Antwerp), Ovide Decroly (Brussels), Jozef Verheyen (Ghent) and Raymond Buyse (Louvain),” in Philosophy and history of the discipline of education. Evaluation and evolution of the criteria for educational research (Research Community Fund of Scientific Research—Vlaanderen, Leuven 18–20 October 2000) eds. Paul Smeyers and Marc Depaepe (Louvain: Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, 2000), 17–30.Google Scholar

39 Verheyen, Jozef E. “La noble figure du Dr. Decroly, psychologue de l'enfant, pédagogue de la vie,“ in Hommage au Dr. Decroly, 9.Google Scholar

40 Hamaïde, Amélie “Ovide Decroly,“ in ibid., 17–24.Google Scholar

41 With this, the young Decroly is placed in a tradition of ‘Robinsonades', for which Daniel Defoe's famous book served as metaphor. See Reinhard Stach, Robinson und Robinsonaden (Magdeburg: Literaturhaus, 2001), 82.Google Scholar

42 Oelkers, Reformpädagogik. Eine kritische Dogmengeschichte. See also Caruso, “¿Una Nave sin Puerto Definitivo?”.Google Scholar

43 Halens, Paul “A l'est de l'Ermitage. La libre pensée dans la pédagogie decrolyenne,“ Paedagogica Historica XXXII/1 (1996): 51–83.Google Scholar

44 Keppens, Gustaaf “Ovide Decroly, psycholoog van het gehandicapte en van het normale kind,“ Christene School. Pedagogische Periodiek 79/15 (May 1972): 235; in which there is mention of a letter from his father. This is, indeed, the case! Decroly received a letter from him on 21 January 1886. Shortly before, however, his mother also wrote a letter (10 November 1885), in which one can already read that her son urgently had to change his attitude if he did not want to endanger his plans for the future—medical studies at the university.Google Scholar

45 Hamaïde, “Ovide Decroly,“ 18–19.Google Scholar

46 Ibid., 20.Google Scholar

47 In 1894, that is, almost immediately after his appointment at the Louvain university, Armand Thiéry received the opportunity to start a Laboratory for Experimental Psychology. This was the first of its kind in Belgium, and it was developed on the model of the institute that Wundt had set up in Leipzig and where Thiéry had studied. Already under J.F. Heymans, the Ghent professor who, while waiting for Thiéry to complete his training, was assigned to teach, a laboratory for experimental psychology would have started but without any room assigned to it. See Maurits Smeyers, Armand Thiéry (Gentbrugge, 1868-Leuven, 1955). Apologie voor een geniaal zonderling (Louvain: De vrienden van de Leuvense Stedelijke Musea, 1992), 19 [= Arca Lovaniensis. Artes Atque Historiae. Reserans Documenta 19–20 (1990–1991)]. Decroly himself apparently distinguished between the Institut and the laboratory, as appears from Ovide Decroly, La Psychologie de l'Enfant en Belgique. Extrait de la Revue de l'Université de Bruxelles Avril-Mai 1908 (Liège: La Meuse, 1908), 690. The private laboratory was, as he stated, only attached to the Institut in 1902 to serve the abnormal children of the Policlinic. The Institut was intended for the hardly representative group of abnormal and normal children from the well-off class (particularly, and this certainly at the beginning, children of acquaintances and colleagues), while Decroly needed for his research a large group of subjects from the working class, which he thus found in the Policlinic as well as in the working-class educational system of the city of Brussels, where, also in 1902, he was appointed médecin-inspecteur. Google Scholar

48 Hamaïde, “Ovide Decroly,“ 21.Google Scholar

49 Ibid., 24.Google Scholar

50 Dalhem, Louis “Ecce Homo“ in Hommage au Dr. Decroly, 28–29.Google Scholar

51 The issue of Vers l'école active X/2 (November 1932) was devoted to Decroly and contained an article written in superlatives by Dubois (pp. 20–27). In it, he stated that “One has said, for example, that Decroly did not write much. Very wrong! Decroly's written work is enormous, dispersed in many articles, brochures, books, printed lectures.” (p. 20). With this, he seems to be acting against opinions like those of Ferrière, who argued that Decroly was better known by the books written about him than by his own publications: “The pen was only a tool for him, and he rarely had time to take it in hand to write a work or even an article.” (p. 234).Google Scholar

52 Biographical information: Maurits De Vroede et al., Bijdragen tot de geschiedenis van het pedagogisch leven in België in de 19^de en 20^ste eeuw. Deel IV: De Periodieken 1914–1918 Eerste Stuk (Louvain: Universitaire Pers, 1987), 817; Fernand Dubois, “Mon grand ami,” in Hommage au Dr. Decroly, 37–38.Google Scholar

53 Dubois, “Mon grand ami,“ 46.Google Scholar

54 Idem, “Il est entré dans la légende“.Google Scholar

55 These words originated in the already mentioned biography by Mrs. Decroly and were cited by, among others, Fernand Dubois, “La vraie figure du maître,” Vers l'Ecole active 14 (November 1932): 25; Angela Medici, L'Education nouvelle. Ses fondateurs. Son évolution (Paris: Alcan/ PUF, 1940), 244; Renaat Merecy, Historische Pedagogiek. Schets van ideeën en werkelijkheden. Hellas tot heden (Antwerp: De Sikkel, 1966), 151; Jean-Marie Besse, Ovide Decroly, psychologue et éducateur (Toulouse: Privat, 1982), 60 [= Grands éducateurs 1].Google Scholar

56 With this he referred to “Les changements de la vie sociale. L'école unique et la préparation de l'élite. Résumé de la communication de Mr. le Docteur Decroly,” Vers l'Ecole active 12 (September 1932): 179–181. This summary was also included as an abstract in the Compte-rendu complet of the 6th Congrès Mondial de la Ligue Internationale pour l'Education Nouvelle (1932).Google Scholar

57 Agustin Nieto Caballero to Madame Decroly, September 1932, Lettres Adressées à Madame Decroly, Uccle: C.E.D. Nieto Caballero wrote seven letters to Mrs. Decroly between 1932 and 1937.Google Scholar

58 Caballero, Agustin Nieto “El Doctor Decroly en Colombia,“ in Hommage au Dr. Decroly, 97–104.Google Scholar

59 Ferrière, Adolphe “Necrologie Ovide Decroly,“ Pour l'Ere Nouvelle XI/81 (October 1932): 234.Google Scholar

60 “El Doctor Decroly,” El Cantabrico (25 September 1932): 1. The special attention of the death was perhaps related to the presence of Julia Degand, who at that very time was giving a course on the “escuela activa” in the local normal school. The “own tempel” mentioned stood as a symbol for the garden in which Decroly died.Google Scholar

61 Jadoulle, Andréa “Manifestation Internationale à la mémoire du Docteur Ovide Decroly au Palais des Académies à Bruxelles,“ Nos Ecoles à l'oeuvre. Bulletin mensuel des oeuvres scolaires d'Angleur VI/10(1933): 1–3.Google Scholar

62 Ibid., 1.Google Scholar

63 Idem, “Hommage de la Science française à la mémoire du Dr. Decroly,“ Nos Ecoles à l'oeuvre. Bulletin mensuel des oeuvres scolaires d'Angleur VI/6 (1933): 1–2. The date of the session was mentioned in the lecture of Henri Wallon, published in the Bulletin de la Société française de pédagogie 47 (March 1933): 2–5. The celebration was organised by the following associations: the Association française pour l'avancement des sciences, the Association générale des Institutrices des Ecoles maternelles, the Cercle Universitaire International, the Groupe français d'Education nouvelle, the Groupe des Inspectrices des Ecoles maternelles, the Société française de pédagogie and the Syndicat national des Instituteurs. Google Scholar

64 Degand, Julia “Les débuts,“ Vers l'école active X/12 (September 1933): 183–185. The article was written on 26 February 1933.Google Scholar

65 There is a folder about this commemeration that has been preserved in the ‘scrap-book’ Hommage au Dr. Decroly après 1932 (Uccle: C.E.D.).Google Scholar

66 “La semaine pédagogique Docteur Ovide Decroly,” La Revue pédagogique XIV/4 (January 1939): 53–54.Google Scholar

67 See Congrès Decroly. Université Libre de Bruxelles, 2-3-4 septembre 1945 (Liège: Thone, n.d.), 169. See also Olaf Moens, Frank Simon, and Jeffrey Tyssens, “ ‘De dag van de opvoeders is nu op komst': onderwijshervormingsvoorstellen rond de Tweede Wereldoorlog,” in De Tweede Wereldoorlog als factor in de onderwijsgeschiedenis/ La Seconde Guerre mondiale, une étappe dans l'histoire de l'enseignement eds. Marc Depaepe and Dirk Martin (Brussels: Navorsings- en Studiecentrum voor de Geschiedenis van de Tweede Wereldoorlog/ Centre de Recherches et d'Etudes historiques de la Seconde Guerre mondiale, 1997), 41.Google Scholar

68 “Een woord vooraf,” in Hommage au Dr. Decroly. Huldebetoon aan Dr. Decroly, 7. The event of 23 November was followed by “des journées pédagogiques” on the two following days. In the student paper of the Ermitage there also appeared a report of this event by a student at which also a production “par la vie, pour la vie” was given by the students. See Le courrier de l'école XXIX/2 (December 1952): 2–3.Google Scholar

69 Verheyen, “Allocution—Toespraak,“ 25.Google Scholar

70 Hamaïde, Amélie “L'influence du Dr. Decroly se fait sentir dans le monde entier,“ in Hommage au Dr. Decroly. Huldebetoon aan Dr. Decroly, 44.Google Scholar

71 Degand, Julia “Les débuts de l'Institut d'Enseignement Spécial,“ in Hommage au Dr. Decroly. Huldebetoon aan Dr. Decroly, 39. See also James W. Trent, Inventing the Feeble Mind. A History of Mental Retardation in the United States (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995), 157.Google Scholar

72 With some good will, we can indeed ascribe to Decroly a role, albeit minor, in the triumphal march of the test across the United States, but this contribution may certainly not be exaggerated nor, for that matter, can that of Goddard himself. According to the literature (for example Diane Ravitch, Left Back: A Century of Failed School Reforms [New York: Simon & Schuster, 2000], 134), which, perhaps, has placed too much emphasis on the self-discourse of the Stanford revision, this was in no way comparable to the contribution of Terman. In 1922 Decroly, together with his assistant Raymond Buyse, made a trip to the United States in order to meet the most important American actors in the testing movement. On their journey they met e.g. Goddard and Terman. That they themselves looked up to the “famous” Goddard appears from the notes that Buyse maintained on this journey: Raymond Buyse, 1922, Archives of the professors, K.U.Leuven Central Library.Google Scholar

73 Organisation Mondiale pour l'Education Préscolaire. Comité national belge, Journée internationale “Decroly” (1871–1932), 15 mars 1953 (Brussels: O.M.E.P., [1953]), 24.Google Scholar

74 Ibid., 2. This speech was given on the eve of the festivities at a visit to the school.Google Scholar

75 Ley, too, did not fail to participate in the commemorations of Decroly shortly after his death: Auguste Ley, “Le Docteur Decroly,” Journal de Neurologie et de Psychiatrie XXXII/9 (September 1932): 711–712.Google Scholar

76 Demi-Journées d'études. Bruxelles-Exposition. 6 October 1958. “Hommage au Docteur Decroly” (Brussels: Ligue belge d'hygiène mentale, 1958), 34.Google Scholar

77 Coulon, Marion Hommage à/ Hulde aan Ovide Decroly. Bibliographie de son œuvre/ Bibliografìe van zijn werk (Brussels: Ministère de l'Education nationale et de la Culture/ Ministerie van Nationale Opvoeding en Cultuur, January 1964), 48.Google Scholar

78 Séance à la mémoire de Decroly: La pensée du Docteur Decroly et l'Ecole d'aujourd'hui (Mons: Université de Mons Département de Documentation didactique et de pédagogie comparée, 31 May 1972). 8 November an exhibition “Decroly et l'éducation nouvelle” was inaugurated at the I.N.R.P., rue d'Ulm, in Paris. See Anniversaires (Uccle: C.E.D., 1932-).Google Scholar

79 Le Docteur Decroly et l'éducation (Brussels: Ecole Decroly, 1971), 68.Google Scholar

80 Dr. Ovide Decroly. Hommage à l'occasion du 110^e anniversaire de sa naissance de Decroly (Ronse: Amicale Rijksbasisonderwijs, 1981), 192.Google Scholar

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82 The “Journées Portes ouvertes” took place on 30 and 31 March 1983. The work of the students was reflected in a special brochure: 1907–1982. L'école de l'Ermitage “Pour la vie, par la vie” a 75 ans (April 1983).Google Scholar

83 Dr. Ovide Decroly (1871–1932). Toespraak gehouden te Ronse in 1904. Tekst van de onuitgegeven redevoering. Uitgegeven door het Departement Onderwijs van de Stad Gent n.a.v. de tentoonstelling Dr. O. Decroly in het Onthaalcentrum “De Coorenblomme”, van 24 februari tot 11 maart 1984 (Gent: Departement Onderwijs van de Stad Gent, 1984), 64; Walter Kerckhove, Om en bij Dr. Ovide Decroly. À propos du Dr. Ovide Decroly et de son œuvre (Ronse: AZ, 1984), 256.Google Scholar

84 For example Documents pédagogiques Ecole Decroly 22, with contributions from G. Delandsheere, F. Dubreucq-Choppix and G. Mialaret.Google Scholar

85 The pupil newspaper Le courrier de l'école, for example, devoted a special issue to Decroly in December 1947 on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the founding of the Ermitage. From a survey included in it, it appeared that the pupils knew little about the founder of their school. The cover shows Decroly standing in the midst of children with his arms slightly open: a true Christ figure, under the motto “let the children come unto me”.Google Scholar

86 For example Besse, Ovide Decroly. See also Valdi José Bassan, Comment intéresser l'enfant à l'école. La notion des centres d'intérět chez Decroly (Paris: PUF, 1976).Google Scholar

87 Van Buggenhout, Jean Enkele aspecten van de pedagogiek in verband met de Vlaamse open-bare lagere school periode 1919–1940 (Gent: R.U.G., 1961), 169 [= Bijdragen tot de Pedagogiek 5].Google Scholar

88 Verheyen, “La noble figure du Dr. Decroly,“ 9–14; Idem, “Ovide Decroly,” in Paedagogische Encyclopaedie eds. Verheyen and Casimir, 329–334.Google Scholar

89 Plancke, Robert L. “Ovide Decroly (1871–1932),“ in Les grands pédagogues ed. Château, Jean (Paris: PUF, 1961), 261–273.Google Scholar

90 Keppens, “Ovide Decroli“.Google Scholar

91 Block, Alfred De “Decroly, Ovide,“ in Nationaal Biografisch Woordenboek eds. Duverger, Jozef et al. (Brussels: Paleis der Academiën, 1964), 1: 394–398; Alfred De Block and Luk Martens, Moderne schoolsystemen (Antwerp: Standaard Educatieve Uitgeverij, 1983), 57–71. The biographical sketch contains many inaccuracies. The Institut de l'Enseignement Spécial, for example, is situated on the Vossegatstraat when it was founded (while it was originally on the rue de la Vanne) and Decroly is given as chairman of the International Congress for Pedagogy in 1911, while it should have been Pedology. In short, classic errors.Google Scholar

92 Wens, Maria the secretary of the Flemish section of the Ligue internationale pour l'éducation nouvelle in the 1950s, who was also associated with the State University of Ghent, gave, in the latter capacity, a lecture on “The role of Decroly in the research into and the treatment of the emotionally disturbed child” on the occasion of a Decroly exhibition at the University of Ghent (Library of the Seminars for Historical and Comparative Pedagogy, 26 November—3 December 1972).Google Scholar

93 Clerck, Karel De “Ovide Decroly en de Gentse Universiteit,“ Een groot opvoeder. De psycho-pedagoog Ovide Decroly. Un grand éducateur. Le psycho-pedagogue Ovide Decroly (Ronse: Vriendenkring Rijksbasisonderwijs avec section française, 1981), 49–51.Google Scholar

94 Herreweghe, Van “Decroly aujourd'hui: éducation et psychologie“.Google Scholar

95 See, for example, Victor D'Espallier, “Decroly, Ovide,” in De Katholieke Encyclopaedie van Opvoeding en Onderwijs eds. Victor D'Espallier et al. ('s Gravenhage/Antwerp: Pax/'t Groeit, 1951), 1: 436–441; Sigebertus Rombouts, Historiese Paedagogiek. Grote lijnen der geschiedenis van het opvoedkundig denken en doen in doorlopend verband met de kultuurontwikkeling (Tilburg/Amsterdam/Antwerp: R.K. Jongensweeshuis/R.K. Boekcentrale/N.V.Veritas, 1928), 3: 262–278; Cyriel De Keyser, Inleiding in de geschiedenis van het Westerse vormingswezen, 5th ed. (Antwerp: Plantyn, 1969), 377–379; R. Windey, K. De Preter, and M. Pelgrims, Geschiedenis van opvoeding en vorming met bloemlezing, 4th ed. (Antwerp: Plantyn, 1965), 185–186.Google Scholar

96 Depaepe, Marc De Vroede, Maurits, and Simon, Frank, “Tussen wens en werkelijkheid: het verhaal van de onderwijsvernieuwing uit 1936,” Christene School. Pedagogische Periodiek 100 (November 1993): 329.Google Scholar

97 Dévaud, Eugène Le système Decroly et la pédagogie chrétienne (Fribourg: Librairie de l'Université, 1936), 84; Julien Melon and Eugène Dévaud, Une nouvelle visite à l'école active de… mon rěve: une centre d'intérět à base grammaticale (Tamines: Duculot-Roulin, 1932), 145; Marie-Thérèze Weber, La pédagogie Fribourgeoise, du Concile de Trente à Vatican II. Continuité ou discontinuité? (Bern: Peter Lang, 1997), 156–162.Google Scholar

98 Dévaud, Eugène “Feuilles détachées de mon carnet de route,“ in Hommage au Dr. Decroly, 69–77.Google Scholar

99 Depaepe, Order in Progress. Google Scholar

100 Roels, Leo Twintig Jaar Boeman (Lier: Van In, 1967), 32–37; Valère Van Coppenolle, De activiteit op school. Google Scholar

101 See the series Hors des Sentiers Battus, for example: Frère Léon, Hors des Sentiers Battus. Essai de Méthodologie Nouvelle IV. Méthodologie spéciale, vol. 3, Contenant la méthodologie de l'enseignement de l'histoire, de l'écriture, de la seconde langue, du dessin, du chant et de la gymnastique (Mont-Saint-Guibert: Frères Maristes, 1937), 111; in Dutch translation: Broeder Leon, Nieuwe wegen op. Proeve van een nieuwe pedagogiek IV. Bijzondere methodiek, vol. 3, Bevattende het onderwijs in de vaderlandsche geschiedenis, het leeren schrijven, het onderwijs in de tweede taal, het teekenonderwijs, het zangonderwijs en de turnoefeningen (Pittem: Broeders Maristen, 1937), 111. There also appeared other series on the so-called “new roads”; see, for example, Victor d'Espallier et al., Nieuwe banen in het onderwijs, 2d ed. (Antwerp/ Brussels/ Ghent/ Louvain: Standaard Boekhandel, 1937), 1: 382; Sigebertus Rombouts, Nieuwe banen in de psychologie Een wegwijzer voor studerenden vooral voor hoofdakte-candidaten (Tilburg: Drukkerij van het R.K. Jongensweeshuis, 1946), VIII, 237.Google Scholar

102 See the already cited manuscript that Buyse prepared on this journey. With this travel report is a map of the USA with the journey marked on it and a typed table with the dates, the duration of the visit in each city, the names of the institutes visited, the people met, the subjects discussed, and the list of the visits, courses, and experiments. According to this document, Buyse and Decroly were in the United States from 27 March through 2 July 1922.Google Scholar

103 Sylvain De Coster, “Decroly (Ovide-Jean),” in Biographie Nationale, vol. 18/10 (Brussels: L'Académie royale des Sciences, des Lettres et des Beaux-Arts de Belgique, 1973), 134–144: “Although other researchers participated in the birth and the development of this discipline [quantitative pedagogy] included in the totality of the pedagogical sciences, one can consider Raymond Buyse, who then became professor at the l'Université catholique de Louvain, to be its true creator. But he had benefited from Decroly's vast knowledge and experience.” (col. 141).Google Scholar

104 Depaepe, Marc Zum Wohl des Kindes? Pädologie, pädagogische Psychologie und experimentelle Pädagogik in Europa und den USA, 1890–1940 (Weinheim/ Leuven: Deutscher Studien Verlag/ Leuven University Press, 1993), 472 [= Beiträge zur Theorie und Geschichte der Erziehungswissenschaft 14].Google Scholar

105 Gille, Arthur “Raymond Buyse, promoteur de la pédagogie expérimentale,“ in L'œuvre pédagogique de Raymond Buyse ed. Bonboir, Anna (Louvain/ Brussels: Vander, 1969), 22: “The Université Libre de Bruxelles offered to engage Buyse as professor. But he declined this flattering invitation out of fidelity to the principles of his Christian faith.”Google Scholar

106 There was a teacher active in the new school movement in France with the same name, who followed in the footsteps of Roger Cousinet. See Louis Raillon, Roger Cousinet. Une pédagogie de la liberté (Paris: Armand Colin, 1990), 85–86, 91, 94, 96. But it appears out of the question that it would be the same person because the French M.L. Wauthier ran a school from 1919, and the Belgian one at that time was still only 15 years old. In addition, there is no mention anywhere in her biographical story of this French experience. Moreover, Wauthier's academic file at the ULB, where she was an assistant from 1938 to 1945, confirms that she was born in Sint-Gillis (Brussels).Google Scholar

107 Wauthier, Marie-Louise Correspondance d'Ovide Decroly (Genappe: Imprimerie Detienne, n.d.).Google Scholar

108 Ibid., 15–16.Google Scholar

109 Ibid., 18.Google Scholar

110 In Decroly's foreword to his translation of Dewey's How We Think [John Dewey, Comment nous pensons (Paris: Ernest Flammarion, 1925)], his thanks are expressed to Valérie Decordes and a certain Miss Olivier, secretary of the Foyer des Orphelins, “who have aided him in his entreprise” (p. 11). One of the letters Mrs. Decroly wrote to Mrs. Libois, the director of the Ermitage at that time [1953], contains this sentence: “J'avais traduit apres [sic] 1914 une partie du livre de Dewey….” (cf. Documents bio-bibliographiques, Uccle: C.E.D.). We know that Decroly always received much help from his colleagues as well as from Mrs. Decroly in the translation and summarizing of many books. This seems to have also been the case here in our opinion.Google Scholar

111 For example Wauthier, Correspondance d'Ovide Decroly, 64. See also our earlier analysis: Marc Depaepe and Frank Simon, “ ‘Mon ami, monsieur Decroly.’ De rol van de biografie in de pedagogische wetenschapsgeschiedenis,” in Gezin, morele opvoeding en antisociaal gedrag. Thema's uit de empirische, wijsgerige en historische pedagogiek. Bijdragen aan de 9^e Landelijke Pedagogendag eds. Hans De Frankrijker, Hans-Jan Kuipers, Joke Scholtens, and René van der Veer (Amsterdam: Uitgeverij SWP, 2000), 221–227.Google Scholar

112 Ibid., 79.Google Scholar

113 Depaepe, Marc “Montessori privée du piédestal? Compte rendu de deux études récentes aux Pays-Bas,“ Paedagogica Historica XXXV/2 (1999): 425–431.Google Scholar

114 See, for example, Dubreucq, Francine “Jean-Ovide Decroly (1871–1932),“ Bulletin de Psychologie 53 (2000): 643–652.Google Scholar

115 Simon, Brian A Life in Education (London: Lawrence & Wishart, 1998), 26–27.Google Scholar

116 See Frijhoff, Willem “Education's memory,“ in Education and Cultural Transmission: Historical Studies of Continuity and Change in Families, Schooling and Youth Cultures eds. Sturm, Johan, Dekker, Jeroen, Aldrich, Richard, and Simon, Frank (Ghent: CSHP, 1996), 343 [= Paedagogica Historica Supplementary Series 2]. See also Karl Catteeuw, Marc Depaepe, and Frank Simon, “Forschungsprojekt Pädagogisches Gedächtnis Flanderns,” Internationale Schulbuchforschung/International Textbook Research III/20 (1998): 313–325.Google Scholar

117 Dominique Grootaers et al., Histoire de l'enseignement en Belgique (Brussels: CRISP, 1998).Google Scholar

118 For example Besse, Ovide Decroly; Bassan, Comment intéresser l'enfant à l'école. Google Scholar

119 Brehony, “From the particular to the general,“ 428.Google Scholar

120 Depaepe, Marc and Simon, Frank, “Feminización dela enseñanza en Bélgica, siglos xix y xx,” in Primer Congreso Internacional sobre los Procesos de Feminización del Magisterio. Currículum vitae. Resumen de ponencias. 21, 22 y 23 febrero de 2001 eds. Luz Elena Galván, Oresta López, and Sonsoles San Román Gago (San Luis de Potosí: S.L.P. México El Colegio de San Luis, 2001), 13.Google Scholar