O Pelouro: a place to leave your homeland for

 

 

 

If you let a child think freely, anything is possible

 

 

Last week I told you about Centre Le Bambou in Portugal; a Place to be Free. A project started by Françoise Hanoul for her son Felix (20) and other young people with autism.

 

This week I want to tell you about the school Felix visits.

 

 

 

For five years now Felix goes to school in Spain just across the border with Portugal in a town called Caldelas de Tui (Pontevedra). And that is a different story. After years of fruitless search for suitable education in Belgium, Francoise accidentally met a Spanish lady, the mother of a friend, who said: ‘The school you are looking for exists!’

She told Françoise about a school in Spain where they organize education in a very special way and where every child is welcome.

 

A school where her son can just be who he is, where he will hopefully be happy; it was worth everything to her. And so Françoise took her son and left Belgium for Spain. The school O Pelouro met all her expectations. Felix brightened up, he became the happy boy he is again.

 

Teresa and her husband started the school in her mother's former hotel in 1973. ‘Teresa is a genius’, Francoise says, ‘We have been so lucky!’

 

Juan, a child-neuropsychiatrist, died a few years ago, but Teresa still runs everything and lives in the house near the school where she herself was born and raised. ‘My Harry Potter house', she calls it when she shows us around. And it is very much like that. A beautifully warm and colorful fantasy house from the pictures. Teresa told us she was a bit tired, because she just had the youngest pupils of the school stay with her for three days! By way of a school camp.

 

 

 

From the very beginning, there was room for every child at Teresa and Juan's school. Gifted, autistic, 'normal', children with the syndrome of down, every child at O Pelouro got the space to discover, to learn, to be part of the group or to work individually on their own project. 

 

 

 

Scientific basis

Thanks to the scientific foundation of the method that Teresa and her husband developed, this school has a special status in Spain and receives full state funding. Education at this school is free for every child.

Teresa says that the most important task of a school is 'to ignite in every child the spark of wanting to learn'.

‘If you let a child think freely, anything is possible,' Teresa says. 

 

 

 

There are no classes at this school. And no subjects. No age groups, or groups based on level of knowledge. Children learn by working on projects. They move freely through the school or outside. The garden is one from an adventure book. There is an intensively involved teaching team. In the school, there are different zones for different disciplines. There is a room for science, for maths, for drama and free expression.

Every day in the morning there is an hour of music and dance for the whole school.

 

 

 

The youngest children have their own building. A fantastic colorful building with different levels to play in and a wonderful slide. We are standing in a long room. At the end is the kitchen where children can cook and eat together with the teacher, the middle of the room is for exercise and at the other end are the toilets. Teresa says: ‘In this way, the children learn the path of food through the body in connection with what you do as a human being. Making food, eating food, moving, defecating.’

Teresa talks nonstop about her ideas, about the concept of the teaching method. Françoise has to translate everything and can hardly keep up. Despite her advanced age, Teresa's enthusiasm is unstoppable.

 

In the way she talks about the ideas of teaching children how everything in life is connected, I recognize Montessori here and there. Teresa tells us that once, in the early days, she was visiting England to tell about their method and someone called her the new Montessori. 'But', she cries, 'most of it is Teresa!'

‘And,’ she says, ‘Montessori's method only had specific material, but with us it's about life.’

 

 

 

One could also compare it with Sudbury education. You could say: Here, too, the child is given the freedom to discover its own interests by learning about history, natural sciences. To learn and solve problems through curiosity, from autonomy. Making mistakes is good and part of the process. The goal is the maturing of the individual. Montessori called this: The awakening of the personality.

At the same time, the social and emotional aspects of life are worked on. One hour of music and dance every day for everyone. I meet a father of a little girl with autism who doesn't talk. She just goes to this school every day and moves among the other children, participates in activities and belongs while being allowed to be herself.

I would have liked Cato to go to this school. I wish this school for every child.

 

 

 

In Spain, children with disabilities are allowed to attend school until they are 20 years old. Felix attends this primary school together with three other young people with disabilities of his age and finds his own way there thanks to the freedom of movement and learning and being. He likes it there a lot.

 

Teresa is now 84 years old. The school has shrunk since the death of her husband. There was also a problem with the building. It no longer meets certain requirements, so the children aged 12 to 16 are no longer allowed to attend. It is very much hoped that someone will come along who will be infected by Teresa's enthusiasm and breathe new life into this wonderful place of education.

 

Anyone who wants to help this incredible school so that the ideas will not be lost, can call this number (only Spanish): 00 34 986 629 024  (From September to June)

Or Email (only Spanish) : escuelapelouro@hotmail.com  (From September to June)

 

 

 

Starting from the left: Françoise, Cato's brother Wessel, me and Teresa