Objects to Learn about and Objects for Learning 1

6Mascots and Notebooks: Preschool Objects Circulating between the School Space and the Family Space

6.1. A pair of peripatetic objects from the transition zone

6.1.1. A mascot and a notebook for multiple uses

In common parlance, a mascot is used to refer to an object, a person or an animal used by a group of individuals as a lucky charm¹. A diachronic study of the professional journal Éducation Enfantine² (from 1903 to 2002) and a contemporary study of teachers’ blogs show that the term “mascot” is used to refer specifically within schools to a toy, generally a stuffed animal or a cloth doll (Figure 6.1). It has been described as an object that gives reassurance to every child (Winnicott 1969) in the school space and as common property belonging to the class, a socializing object that aids communication with peers and with the adults in the school. It is moreover regarded as a way for a child to appropriate the marker-posts that give structure to time and space, with its presence or absence marking out the changes in the socialization environments (Wallon 1959) that the child experiences in everyday life. Parents are, however, encouraged to take this object into their homes in turn, usually at the end of the week, and to make a record in a common notebook of its visit to their home. Back in class, the child tells everyone about “the mascot’s trip”³, using as an aid the notebook containing photographs, leaflets, drawings and short texts written with the family. This collective ...