C. Freinet went through two world wars: in the first one  he reported an injury to the lung, in the other one  was imprisoned in a concentration camp in Vichy republic.
He also fought in his scholastic  situation, and suffered the consequences, prejudice, stupidity, the reaction that  could not stand his  lesson that wanted to bring all the children of a country at the same level with the same rights and the same opportunities for educational success.

He saw  coming to his  school the children of Spanish Republicans.
Peace for him is the opportunity of a moral, civil cultural elevation  for everyone.
He, then,  denounced the 'great deception' that brought millions of people illiterate or poorly educated to fight and kill for  false ideals.
Misinformation, critical analysis of school textbooks, the media messages, research as a political tools for the emancipation of judgment, are for him the foundation of an education truly democratic and of peace, for peace.
Education to peace is achieved if individuals, from an early age,  can practice the free expression of their thought, it gives choice and independent decision, you have to  work to teach the freedom from many influences, it promotes an opening to participation in school, to collective action, cooperation, mutual aid.
If it does not overlap the differences and personal strategies a unique teaching pattern and unique; if you give it time to build / construct / build together.

 The war, Sergio Neri said, requires fast, speed, immediacy; such as peace, education is slow, long to spread, to produce changes in attitudes, mentality and frames of reference.
That of Freinet is a pedagogy of acts, facts, concrete tools, 'materialistic', as he calls it. But the growth and development that emerges is highly spiritual: everyone should be able to choose their own life, and there are no levels and stages of life lower or higher on which to hold the social framework (cf.. Invariants).
Today we are focusing on merit, talent, excellence. We hurry to bring out their personal competence in the most endowed with effects that you want (in words) 'saving' for a society in crisis in the grip of bewilderment and compulsion. But the hard work of bringing out in each of their propensities, their reference points (as in  The natural method), not leaving anyone behind,  is what the school must first and foremost guarantee.
And this calls into question the need for the political attitude, choices that the teacher cannot cope, not to take into account in his/her professional profile. Without an ethical and political horizon together there can be no true education,  here there are many consonances with d. Milani, with Freire, with Dewey, with Korczàck, with all educators that in the short century have paid personally, often a relevant person is who does not 'feel' the political value of its intervention. And he/ she does not share it with others, do not claim it .  Freinet  trade union, political, cultural, educational fights have done, were a witness

After Freinet you cannot think organically  to education except in terms of a unified, organic response consistent with educational needs, and pedagogical and cultural commitment, and a mirror image in terms of educational provision qualified  as a political commitment research.

Giancarlo Cavinato national secretary MCE