Contact

We’re delighted that you’re seeking to get in touch with us and we will happily reply to your questions if you send us an email to contact@celinealvarez.org. However, before writing to us, please check to see if there is already an answer to your question below.

Request for participation

If your request concerns taking part in an event or a conference, please specify in your email the duration, nature and theme of the event, the proposed dates, the number of people invited, the type of audience and the other participants who will be present: matthieu@celinealvarez.org. Please note, however, that up till September 2017 we will be giving priority to conference requests from school inspectors and teacher training centres (ESPE, Canopé).

Online availability of content

We are in the process of making the teaching content available on line. We hope that all the tools will be online by June 2017. For the time being, we can’t give a precise data, but rest assured that we are doing our best to make them available as rapidly as possible: this is one of our main priorities for the coming school year. We’re going to start by finalising the videos on the practical underpinning sessions which took place on 11, 12 and 13 July 2016. We invite you to sign up to our newsletter so that you are informed when new content is posted.

Questions about how to start up an autonomously functioning class

We invite you first of all to view the videos on theoretical underpinning. If you can’t find the answers to some of your questions, please join the forum or our Facebook group The Natural Laws of the Child and ask your questions there. Hundreds of outstanding, generous and warm-hearted teachers who are committed to developing the innate potential of young human beings are involved in helping each other and sharing their expertise. Numerous files are already available thanks to this group.

Personal or professional questions

We invite you to ask your questions on the forum. We monitor the forum almost daily, and we will find the time to reply to you as soon as they can. Other people are on hand to help you too, and all the participants can benefit from these discussions. So please check to see if your question has already been asked on the forum. Thank you!

Cancellation of donations

Matthieu will take care of cancelling your monthly contribution very rapidly if you send an email to matthieu@celinealvarez.org.

Using our videos and photos

Our videos show (for the moment) mainly Séguin / Montessori legacy activities, which we have mostly recaptured. Nevertheless our videos have not been designed to promote the Montessori method or material of the same name. Our videos are designed to provide parents and teachers with ideas for relevant activities, while encouraging everyone to complement them with other activities so they do not lock themselves into a rigid teaching system.

Thus, to maintain no confusion between our sharing approach and the official Montessori method (which prohibits any addition, appropriation or modification of the inheritance), we do not allow the use of our videos for projects (websites , school sites, conferences, trainings, etc.) which strictly claim Montessori pedagogy and which aim to promote it. Of course, we also do not allow the use of our videos for commercial sites.

On the other hand, we allow any educational staff - whose reflection is part of an open approach - to project these videos or to use them during teaching exchanges without even asking us for permission.

For any other request - school website, crowfunding page, public projection, professional training, or other - you will have to ask us our agreement by mail to contact@celinealvarez.org giving us some indication of the context in which you want to use our videos. Thank you!

How do I present my crowdfunding page so that I can use your videos?

By explaining in your own words that, in order to cater to the natural learning mechanisms of children, who need fulfilling autonomous activities and a greater degree of social bonding and empathy, you have chosen to change the way you run your class. To achieve that, you need to adopt new, intelligently designed activities which the children can use autonomously. So-called ‘Montessori’ materials (so-called, because much of it is in fact the direct legacy of the work Itard and Séguin) are extraordinary for this because they enable children to embark on learning the fundamentals in a highly effective way. The important thing in our view is that you make it clear that you are not joining the Montessori religion, but rather, based on the scientific information you have familiarised yourself with, you are embarking on a personal, liberating and fun journey of research, exploration and feeling your way forward gradually, keeping every teaching option open so as to fully satisfy and the individual and collective needs of the children. We must have the feeling that you are flying the flag for the children and not for a particular method. If that is the case, you can depend on our full support. As mentioned in the previous answer, we do however ask you to request our prior consent by email (contact@celinealvarez.org), enclosing the text of your crowdfunding page.