Éclaireuses

La Petite École in the heart of Brussels welcomes children aged six to fifteen who have never attended school, and who are often in exile. Marie and Juliette have created this place outside of the conventional structures of learning, where children can learn to be or become children again, with the aim of entering a conventional school one day. First and foremost, the challenge for these two “leading lights” is to teach the young newcomers, sometimes suffering from post-traumatic stress, how to leave the family circle and follow a rhythm within a community of similarly aged peers. To do this, Marie and Juliette fill their days with rituals and activities during which they observe, assess, readapt and propose. What kind of school do you offer children who have never been to one? From failures that do not seem to be such, to small victories, they thus succeed in preparing the children to “be, by themselves”. Lydie Wisshaupt-Claudel captures the patience and experimental approach of these two extraordinary women, with sublime framing and light that portray the hope and humanism that reign in this place.

Aurélien Marsais