''La Ruche'' ("The Hive") was a French school founded by

Sébastien Faure Sébastien Faure (6 January 1858 – 14 July 1942) was a French anarchist, freethought and secularist activist and a principal proponent of synthesis anarchism. Biography Before becoming a free-thinker, Faure was a seminarist. He engaged ...

on anarchist principles.

History

The anarchist

founded ''La Ruche'' on 20

hectare The hectare (; SI symbol: ha) is a non-SI metric unit of area equal to a square with 100-metre sides (1 hm2), or 10,000 m2, and is primarily used in the measurement of land. There are 100 hectares in one square kilometre. An acre is a ...

s of leased farmland in Le Pâtis, near

Rambouillet Rambouillet (, , ) is a subprefecture of the Yvelines department in the Île-de-France region of France. It is located beyond the outskirts of Paris, southwest of its centre. In 2018, the commune had a population of 26,933. Rambouillet lies ...

, on the outskirts of Paris in 1904. The land was both the grounds for his alternative, experimental school and an anarchist commune. The school's name, ''La Ruche'', or "The Hive", comes from the land's resource of honey, which the school used as supplementary income. Faure also funded the school through his lectures and books. He established a cooperative to buy and market the farm's produce. ''La Ruche'' operated as a

soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

, following the will of the staff's weekly general assembly. The colony persisted through the end of

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, when it closed under Faure's financial deficits.

Program

The school followed a program modeled on that of anarchist pedagogue

Paul Robin Paul may refer to: *Paul (given name), a given name (includes a list of people with that name) *Paul (surname), a list of people People Christianity * Paul the Apostle (AD c.5–c.64/65), also known as Saul of Tarsus or Saint Paul, early Chri ...

. About 50 children between the ages of 5 and 16 attended the school, selected from an applicant pool. Children of politically repressed families were given special consideration, such as those of Émile Henry. Ideologically, Faure did not impose his anarchist beliefs on the children, but afforded the children full autonomy—they were not coerced into a specific course of study. ''La Ruche'' offered Esperanto lessons through the age of 10, when children were put into pre-apprenticeships that rotated between workshops multiple times per month. They began formal apprenticeships with a wage at the age of 13, whereupon they produced goods for the school. ''La Ruche'' used Paul Robin's approach to sex education and mixed-gender classes. Teachers were unpaid. A common fund provided for their needs and lodging. There were no checks on the disbursement of the fund and there are no records of the arrangement being an issue.

Legacy

Following ''La Ruche'' closure, Faure's disciple

Aristide Lapeyre Aristide Lapeyre (1899–1974) was a French anarchist activist, trade unionist, and free-thinker. References Further reading * Sylvie Knoerr-Saulière, Francis Kaigre, '' Jean-René Saulière dit André Arru, un individualiste solid ...

established the Elan school of

Villeneuve-sur-Lot Villeneuve-sur-Lot (; in the Languedocien dialect of Occitan language: ''Vilanuèva d'Òlt'' ) is a town and commune in the southwestern French department of Lot-et-Garonne. The commune was formerly named ''Villeneuve-d'Agen''. Villeneuve-sur-Lot ...

, which persisted from the 1930s through

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

History

Program

Legacy

See also

References

Bibliography

Further reading