Pourquoi certains élèves refusent-ils d’apprendre ? | Philippe Meirieu

Is teaching simply about transmitting knowledge? Or must it also create the conditions that allow students to freely appropriate it? In this seminal lecture, Philippe Meirieu explores one of the deepest contradictions of the teaching profession: we have a duty to transmit knowledge, but we can never learn in place of another. At a time when the link between generations is weakening and when schools are struggling to clearly define what they should bequeath to children, teachers are being called upon to "transmit." This demand is legitimate: no child can grow up without being introduced to a history, a culture, shared languages, and rules that make collective life possible. To renounce transmission would therefore be a true educational abdication. But Philippe Meirieu also demonstrates the danger of a transmission that becomes mechanical, authoritarian, or obsessive. When the teacher's will directly clashes with that of the student, teaching can easily descend into a power struggle: forcing the student to yield, obtaining a facade of submission, excluding those who resist, or attempting to "mold" them according to a predetermined model. Yet education is neither about training nor manipulating. Education accompanies the emergence of an individual capable of thinking, understanding, and acting independently. The central question then becomes: how to transmit knowledge without imposing it? How to remain faithful to the demands of culture while allowing the student the necessary space to learn? Philippe Meirieu reminds us that one can compel someone to repeat a sentence or follow instructions, but never truly force them to learn. All learning requires personal commitment, risk-taking, and that "courage of beginnings" which allows one to try what one does not yet know how to do. The conference is situated within the history of pedagogy and draws upon the work of Pestalozzi, Montessori, Freinet, Korczak, Makarenko, Jacotot, and other educators who chose not to abandon children considered difficult or "uneducable." Their shared challenge lies in finding a path between two dead ends: abandoning the student and forcing their education. Philippe Meirieu also presents several concrete guidelines for reflecting on teaching practices: moving beyond the adversarial confrontation between teacher and student; placing knowledge between them that transcends preconceived notions; distinguishing between the completed task and the objective actually learned; organizing exchanges without humiliation; differentiating time and space; rebuilding school rituals; diversifying resources; and viewing mistakes as opportunities for analysis and progress. This reflection also sheds light on the crisis of meaning in school knowledge. Schools cannot limit themselves to demonstrating its immediate usefulness. It must make culture desirable, keep the great human questions alive, and allow students to recognize themselves as heirs to a shared history. Pedagogy, therefore, does not renounce rigor, authority, or transmission: it seeks the means by which each individual can, in Pestalozzi's words, "become the work of themselves." 📌 Conference Information Original Title: Teaching: The Duty to Transmit, the Means of Learning Speaker: Philippe Meirieu Date of Recording and Online Publication: September 2, 2000 Series: Issues in Education and Training of Tomorrow Original Source: Canal-U / University of All Knowledge Production: Mission 2000 in France Source Link: https://www.canal-u.tv/chaines/utls/e... 00:00 Teaching: Transmitting and Facilitating Learning 01:08 The Contradictory Missions of Schools 05:05 Crisis of Legitimacy and Student Resistance 09:30 The Legacy of Great Educators 12:56 Transmitting Knowledge is an Imperative 17:24 Transmitting Knowledge Without Neither abandon nor train 20:10 When transmission becomes a dead end 22:01 Can someone be forced to learn? 27:27 Inventing ways to learn 28:04 Restoring meaning and desire to knowledge 33:15 Active methods and mediating objects 36:24 Truth, freedom, and debate at school 39:14 The seven essential pedagogical principles 43:08 Pestalozzi and the model of a different kind of classroom 49:07 Q&A: Class size 54:34 Montaigne and practicing educators 59:38 Islamic headscarf, cultures, and living together 1:05:14 Homogeneous or heterogeneous classes? 1:11:13 The role of school rituals 1:14:17 Social diversity, history, and reconciliation