Even before the anti-authoritarian International was created at the St Imier Congress in Switzerland in 1872, Proudhon had asserted his views on integral education as Charles Fourier had done before him.

I will focus on the scale of the Anarchists' educational project. Education and pedagogy have indeed been an essential part of our movement's activities and questionings at all times in all places. The numerous resolutions passed in the congresses of the Workers' International Association are evidence to this as well as Bakunin's words, Guillaume's and Stirner's writings.

However, Education was also part and parcel of the activities and practices of the anarcho-unionist movement and the international anarchist movement as witnessed in the Trade union Centers in France with Fernand Pelloutier, or in the support the CGT (General Confederation of Labour) from the Paris area gave to "La Ruche" created by Sébastien Faure; The CNT (The National Confederation of Workers) activists also initiated and developed the rationalist schools in Spain; the Swiss Workers' Union Federation supported the Ferrer school in Lausanne.

Those Modern schools as well as the rationalist, libertarian or alternative schools had an impact as far as Brazil and all over the world; their ideas still prevail against all odds in some places. Anarchists believe education should be self-directed and self-directedness nurtures education – a virtuous circle whose goal is to develop self-consciousness and libertarian social practices and to help creating a new society of proud men and women.

Hugues Lenoir, French Anarchist Federation.