Discover How Louise Became a Teacher and Looked After Her Students

Louise Michel is remembered today as a revolutionary, a writer, and one of the most vivid figures of the Paris Commune of 1871. Yet long before she stood on barricades or faced exile, she was first and foremost an educator. Teaching was not a detour on her way to politics; it was the ground on which her ideas, her compassion, and her defiance of injustice were formed.

This website is dedicated to five short stories inspired by Louise Michel’s life. One of the central threads running through these stories is Louise as a teacher: a woman who believed, fiercely and tenderly, that education could be an act of care, resistance, and hope.

Louise Michel’s Path to Teaching

Born in 1830 in rural Haute-Marne, Louise Michel grew up surrounded by books, music, and intellectual curiosity. Raised by her mother and grandparents, she received an unusually rich education for a girl of her background. From an early age, she read widely, wrote poetry, and absorbed both Enlightenment ideas and a deep sympathy for the poor and marginalized.

Becoming a teacher was a natural expression of this upbringing. In her early twenties, she trained as a schoolmistress and eventually made her way to Paris. Teaching gave her independence, but more importantly, it gave her a place to put her beliefs into practice at a time when education was often rigid, punitive, and deeply unequal.

Louise rejected authoritarian methods. She believed children learned best through curiosity, imagination, and trust. She filled her classroom with stories, music, and attention to the natural world, treating her pupils not as empty vessels but as individuals worthy of respect.

Education as Care

For Louise Michel, teaching was never only about books and lessons. It was about paying attention - to the conditions in which children lived, to the obstacles they faced, and to the quiet ways hardship could shape their lives.

The Little School of Big Dreams is inspired by this dimension of her work. Rather than focusing only on what happens in a classroom, it explores how Louise understood education as something that extended beyond walls and schedules. To teach, in her view, was also to notice what made learning difficult, and to care about the lives of children beyond their schoolwork.

This approach was radical in its time. Louise believed that education could not be separated from dignity, safety, and well-being. A child who was cold, hungry, frightened, or excluded could not truly learn - and so the teacher’s responsibility went far beyond the page.

From the Classroom to the Commune

Louise’s years as a teacher in Paris unfolded alongside growing political unrest. The same injustices she saw affecting her students - poverty, hunger, and exclusion - were shaking French society as a whole.

When the Paris Commune erupted in 1871, Louise was already shaped by years of working with children on the margins. She remained deeply committed to education during and after the uprising, insisting that learning should be free, secular, and open to all. Even in exile, she continued to teach, proving that for her, education was not a role but a lifelong calling.

Why I Wrote These Stories

As the author of these short stories, I was drawn to Louise Michel not only as a revolutionary, but as someone who lived her values in small, daily ways. In The Little School of Big Dreams, her work as a teacher reveals how deeply she believed in the potential of young people - and how seriously she took her responsibility toward them.

These stories are not biographies. They are imaginative responses to the spirit of Louise Michel’s life. By exploring her role as an educator in this particular tale, I wanted to bring readers close to the texture of her world: the classrooms, the seasons, the relationships, and the quiet acts of care that shaped her days.

Louise Michel believed another world was possible - and in this story, she begins building it through education. I invite you to discover her not only as a symbol of rebellion, but as a teacher who looks after her students with intelligence, imagination, and unwavering care.

Purchase or Pre-order The Little School of Big Dreams from the Purchase menu at the top of this page