The History of Education Part 51

483), his _emile_ also appeared and attacked with equal vigor the religious and social theory as to education then prevailing throughout western Europe. For the stiff and unnatural methods in education, under which children were dressed and made to behave as adults, [3] the harsh discipline of the time, and the excessive emphasis on religious instruction and book education, he preached the subst.i.tution of life amid nature, childish ways and sports, parental love, and an education that considered the instincts and natural development of children.

Gathering up the political and social ideas of his age as to ecclesiastical and political despotism; the nature of the social contract; that the "state of nature" was the ideal one, and the one in which men had been intended to live; that human duty called for a return to the "state of nature," whatever that might be; and that the artificiality and hypocrisy of his age in manners, dress, religion, and education were all wrong--Rousseau restated his political philosophy in terms of the education of the boy, emile. Despite its many exaggerations, much faulty reasoning, and many imperfections, the book had a tremendous influence upon Europe in laying bare the limitations and defects and abuses of the formal and ecclesiastical education of the time. [4] He may be regarded as the first important writer to sap the foundations of the old system of religious education, and to lay a basis for a new type of child training (R. 254). Though Rousseau's enthusiasm took the form of theory run mad, and the educational plan he proposed was largely impossible, he nevertheless popularized education, not only in France, but among the reading public of the progressive European States as well. After he had written, the old limited and narrow religious education was on the defensive, and, though time was required, the transition to a more secular type of education was inevitable as fast as nations and peoples could shake off the dominance of the Church in state affairs.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 155 LA CHALOTAIS (1701-83)]

2. _La Chalotais._ The year following the publication of Rousseau's _emile_ appeared La Chalotais's _Essai d'education nationale_ (1763). Rene de la Chalotais, a Solicitor-General for the Parliament of Bretagne, was one of the notable French parliamentarians of the middle of the eighteenth century. Unlike Rousseau's highly imaginary, exaggerated, sentimental, and paradoxical volume, La Chalotais produced a practical and philosophical discussion of the problem of the education of a people. Declaring firmly that education was essentially a civil affair; that it was the function of government to make citizens contented by educating them for their sphere in society; that citizen and secular teachers should not be excluded for celibates; [5] that the real purpose of education should be to prepare citizens for France; that the poor were deserving of education; and that "the most enlightened people will always have the advantage" in the struggles of a modern world, La Chalotais produced a work which was warmly approved by such political philosophers as Voltaire, Diderot, and Turgot, and which was translated into several European languages (R. 255). Though far less widely read than Rousseau's _emile_, it was far more influential in shaping subsequent political theory and action regarding the relations of education to the State. Nearly every proposal for educational legislation during the days of the Revolution went back in idea to this philosophic discussion of the question by La Chalotais and to the practical proposals of Rolland and Turgot.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 156. ROLLAND (1734-93)]

3. _Rolland._ In 1768 Rolland, president of the Parliament of Paris, presented to his colleagues a report in which he outlined a national system of education to replace both the schools of the Jesuits and those of the Brothers of the Christian Schools. La Chalotais had proposed a more modern system of state schools chiefly to replace those of the Jesuits, but Rolland went further and proposed the extension of education to all, and the supervision of all schools by a central council of the Government.

By means of a centralized control, a central university to which the other universities of France were to be subordinate, a higher normal school to train teachers for the colleges (secondary schools), and universal education, [6] Rolland hoped to develop for France a national spirit, a national character, and a national government and code of laws, and to bring the youth of the provinces into harmony with the best of all French ideas.

4. _Turgot._ In 1774 Turgot was appointed Minister of Finance (p. 481), and in 1775 he made a series of recommendations to the King in which he set forth ideas a.n.a.logous to those of Rolland, and presented an eloquent plea for the formation of a national council of public instruction and the establishment of a system of civil and national education for the whole of France. In closing he wrote:

Your kingdom, Sir, is of this world. Without opposing any obstacle to the instructions whose object is higher, and which already have their rules and their expounders, I think I can propose to you nothing of more advantage to your people than to cause to be given to all your subjects an instruction which shows them the obligations they owe to society and to your power to protect them, and the interest they have in fulfilling those duties for the public good and their own. This moral and social instruction requires books expressly prepared, by compet.i.tion, and with great care, and a schoolmaster in each parish to teach them to children, along with the art of writing, reading, counting, measuring, and the principles of mechanics. The study of the duty of citizenship ought to be the foundation of all the other studies.... There are methods and establishments for training geometricians, physicists, and painters, but there are none for training citizens.

5. _Diderot._ In 1776 Diderot, editor with D'Alembert of the _Encyclopaedia_ (1751-72), prepared, at the request of Catherine II (p.

477), under the t.i.tle of _Plan of a University_, a complete scheme for the organization of a state system of public instruction for Russia. Though the plan was never carried out, it was printed and much discussed in France, and is important as coming from one of the most influential Frenchmen of his time. He commends as an example to be followed the work of the German States in the organization of popular instruction. For Russia he outlines first a system of people's schools, which shall be free and obligatory for all, and in which instruction in reading, writing, arithmetic, morals, civics, and religion shall be taught. "From the Prime Minister to the lowest peasant," he says, "it is good for every one to know how to read, write, and count." For the series of secondary schools to be established, he condemns the usual practice of devoting so much of the instruction to the humanities and a mediaeval type of logic and ethics, and urges instead the introduction of instruction in mathematics, in the modern sciences, literature, and the work of governments. Cla.s.sical studies he would confine to the last years of the course. Science, history, drawing, and music find a place in his scheme.

All this instruction Diderot would place under the supervisory control of an administrative bureau to be known as the _University of Russia_, at the head of which should be a statesman, who should exercise control of all the work of public instruction beneath. Though never carried out in Russia, the University of France of 1808 is largely an embodiment of the ideas he proposed in 1776.

LEGISLATIVE PROPOSALS TO EMBODY THESE IDEAS. During the quarter of a century between the publication of Rousseau's _emile_ and the summoning of the States-General to reform France (1762-88), the educational as well as the political ideas of the French reformers had taken deep root with the thinking cla.s.ses of the nation. The _cahiers_ of 1789, of all Orders (p.

500), gave evidence of this in their somewhat general demand for the creation of some form of an educational system for France (R. 252). From the first days of the Revolution pedagogical literature became plentiful, and the successive National a.s.semblies found time, amid the internal reorganization of France, const.i.tution-making, the troubles with and trial of the King, and the darkening cloud of foreign intervention, to listen to reports and addresses on education and to enact a bill for the organization of a national school system. The more important of these educational efforts were:

1. _The Const.i.tuent a.s.sembly_ (June 17, 1789, to September 30, 1791). In the Const.i.tuent a.s.sembly, into which the States-General resolved itself, June 17, 1789, and which continued until after it had framed the const.i.tution of 1791, two notable addresses and one notable report on the organization of education were made. The Count de Mirabeau, a n.o.bleman turned against his cla.s.s and elected to the States-General as a representative of the Third Estate, made addresses on the "Organization of a Teaching Body" and on the "Organization of a National _Lycee_." In the first he advocated the establishment of primary schools throughout France.

In the second he proposed the establishment of colleges of literature in each department, with a National _Lycee_ at Paris for higher (university) education, and to contain the essentials of a national normal school or teachers' college as well.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 157 COUNT DE MIRABEAU (1749-91)]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 158. TALLEYRAND (1758-1838)]

Mirabeau's proposals represent rather a transition in thinking from the old to the new, but the Report of Talleyrand (1791), former Bishop of Autun, now turned revolutionist, embodies the full culmination of revolutionary educational thought. Public instruction he termed "a power which embraces everything, from the games of infancy to the most imposing fetes of the Nation." He definitely proposed the organization of a complete state system of public instruction for France, to consist of a primary school in every canton (community, district), open to the children of peasants and workmen--cla.s.ses heretofore unprovided with education; a secondary school in every department (county); a series of special schools in the chief French cities, to prepare for the professions; and a National Inst.i.tute, or University, to be located at Paris. Inspired by Montesquieu's principle that "the laws of education ought to be relative to the principles of government," Talleyrand proposed a bill designed to give effect to the provisions of the Const.i.tution of 1791 relating to education (p. 501), and to provide an education for the people of France who were now to exercise, through elected representatives, the legislative power for France. Instruction he held to be the necessary counterpoise of liberty, and every citizen was to be taught to know, obey, love, and protect the new const.i.tution. Political, social, and personal morality were to take the place of religion in the cantonal schools, which were to be free and equally open to all. As the Const.i.tuent a.s.sembly was succeeded by the newly elected Legislative a.s.sembly within three weeks after Talleyrand submitted his Report, no action was taken on his bill.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 159. CONDORCET (1743-94)]

2. _The Legislative a.s.sembly_ (October 1, 1791, to September 21, 1792).

This new legislative body was far more radical in character than its predecessor, and far more radical than was the sentiment of France at the time. Among other acts it abolished (1792) the old universities and confiscated (1793) their property to the State. To it was submitted (April 20-21, 1792) by the mathematician, philosopher, and revolutionist, Marquis de Condorcet, [7] on behalf of the Committee on Public Instruction and as a measure of reconstruction, a Report and draft of a Law for the organization of a complete democratic system of public instruction for France (R. 256). It provided for the organizing of a primary school for every four hundred inhabitants, in which each individual was "to be taught to direct his own conduct and to enjoy the plenitude of his own rights,"

and where principles would be taught, calculated to "insure the perpetuation of liberty and equality." The bill also provided, for the first time, for the organization of higher primary schools in the princ.i.p.al towns; colleges (secondary schools) in the chief cities (one for every four thousand inhabitants); a higher school for each "department"; _Lycees_, or inst.i.tutions of still higher learning, at nine places in France; and a National Society of Sciences and Arts to crown the educational system at Paris. The national system of education he proposed was to be equally open to women, as well as men, and to be gratuitous throughout. Teachers for each grade of school were to be prepared in the school next above. Sunday lectures for workingmen and peasants were to be given by teachers everywhere. Public morality, political intelligence, human progress, and the preservation of liberty and equality were the aims of the instruction. The necessity for education in a const.i.tutional government he saw clearly. "A free const.i.tution," he writes, "which should not be correspondent to the universal instruction of citizens, would come to destruction after a few conflicts, and would degenerate into one of those forms of government which cannot preserve the peace among an ignorant and corrupt people." Anarchy or despotism he held to be the future for peoples who become free without being enlightened. He held it to be a fundamental principle that:

The order of nature includes no distinctions in society beyond those of education and wealth. To establish among citizens an equality in fact, and to realize the equality confirmed by law, ought to be the primary object of national instruction.

The bill proposed by Condorcet, while too ambitious for the France of his day, was thoroughly sound as a democratic theory of education, and an accurate prediction of what the nineteenth century brought generally into existence. Condorcet's Report was discussed, but not acted upon.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 160. THE INSt.i.tUTE OF FRANCE Founded by Article 298 of the Const.i.tution of Year III (1793)]

3. _The National Convention_ (September 21, 1792, to October 26, 1795).

The Convention was also a radical body, deeply interested in the creation of a system of state schools for the people of France. To higher education there was for a time marked opposition, though later in its history the Convention erected a number of important higher technical inst.i.tutions and schools, among the most important of which was the Inst.i.tute of France.

There was also in the Convention marked opposition to all forms of clerical control of schools. The schools of the Brothers of the Christian Schools were suppressed by it, in 1792, and all secular and endowed schools and colleges were abolished and their property confiscated, in 1793. The complete supremacy of the State in all educational matters was now a.s.serted. Great enthusiasm was manifested for the organization of state primary schools, which were ordered established in 1793 (R. 258 a), and in these:

Children of all cla.s.ses were to receive that first education, physical, moral, and intellectual, the best adapted to develop in them republican manners, patriotism, and the love of labor, and to render them worthy of liberty and equality.

The course of instruction was to include: "to speak, read, and write correctly the French language; the geography of France; the rights and duties of men and citizens; [8] the first notions of natural and familiar objects; the use of numbers, the compa.s.s, the level, the system of weights and measures, the mechanical powers, and the measurement of time. They are to be taken into the fields and the workshops where they may see agricultural and mechanical operations going on, and take part in the same so far as their age will allow."

What a change from the course of instruction in the religious schools just preceding this period!

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 161. LAKa.n.a.l (1762-1845)]

A multiplicity of reports, bills, and decrees, often more or less contradictory but still embodying ideas advanced by Condorcet and Talleyrand, now appeared. Whereas the preceding legislative bodies had considered the subject carefully, but without taking action, the Convention now acted. The nation, though, was so engrossed by the internal chaos and foreign aggression that there was neither time nor funds to carry the decrees into effect.

The most extreme proposal of the period was the bill of Lepelletier le Saint-Fargeau to create a national system of education modeled closely after that of ancient Sparta. The best of the proposals probably was the Laka.n.a.l Law, of November 17, 1794, which ordered a school for every one thousand inhabitants, with special divisions for boys and girls, and which provided for instruction in:

1. Reading and writing the French language.

2. The Declaration of the Rights of Man, and the Const.i.tution.

3. Lessons on republican morals.

4. The rules of simple calculation and surveying.

5. Lessons in geography and the phenomena of nature.

6. Lessons on heroic actions, and songs of triumph.

Laka.n.a.l also carefully prescribed the method of instruction, and advocated the founding of a national normal school (Latin _norma_; a rule), which idea the Convention adopted in 1794, the school opening [9] in January, 1795. Supplementing this was the law of February 25, 1795, ordering central or higher schools established to replace the former colleges, [10]

one for every three hundred thousand of the population, which were to offer instruction from twelve to eighteen. The course was to include:

12 to 14--Drawing, natural history, ancient and living languages.

14 to 16--Mathematics, natural philosophy, experimental chemistry.

16 to 18--Grammar, literature, history, legislation.

Organized on a soviet principle, each professor declared the equal of every other, and lacking any effective administration or discipline, these inst.i.tutions soon fell into disrepute and were displaced when Napoleon reorganized secondary education in France.

The law of October 25, 1795, closed the work of the Convention. This made less important provisions for primary education (R. 258 b) than had preceding bills, but was the only permanent contribution of this period to the organization of primary schools. It placed greater emphasis than had the legislative a.s.sembly on the creation of secondary and higher inst.i.tutions (R. 258 a), of more value to the bourgeois cla.s.s. This bill of 1795 represents a reaction from the extreme republican ideas of a few years earlier, and the triumph of the conservative middle-cla.s.s elements in the nation over the radical republican elements previously in control.

The Convention also, in the latter part of its history, created a number of higher technical inst.i.tutions of importance, which were expressive alike of the French interest in scientific subjects which arose during the latter part of the eighteenth century, and of the new French military needs. Many of these inst.i.tutions have persisted to the present, so well have they answered the scientific interests and needs of the nation. A mere list of the inst.i.tutions created is all that need be given. These were:

Museum or Conservatory of Arts (Jan. 16, 1794).

Conservatory of Arts and Trades (Oct. 10, 1794).

New medical schools (_Schools of Health_) ordered (Dec. 4, 1794).

Museum of Natural History (Dec. 11, 1794).

Central Schools to succeed the former Colleges (secondary schools) (Feb. 25, 1795).

School of Living Oriental Languages (March 30, 1795).

Veterinary Schools (April 21, 1795).

Course in Archaeology, National Library (June 8, 1795).

Bureau of Longitude (June 29, 1795).

Conservatory of Music (Aug. 3, 1795).

The National Library (Oct. 17, 1795).

Museum of Archaeological Monuments (Oct. 20, 1795).

Polytechnic Schools (R. 257); School of Civil Engineering; School of Hydrographic Engineers; and School of Mining (Oct. 22, 1795).

The Convention also adopted the metric system of weights and measures; enacted laws under which the peasants could acquire t.i.tle to the lands they had tilled for so long; and began the unification of the laws of the different parts of the country into a single set, which later culminated in the _Code Napoleon_.

4. _The Directory_ (1795-99) _and the Consulate_ (1799-1804). The Revolution had by this time largely spent itself, the Directory followed, and in 1799 Napoleon became First Consul and for the next sixteen years was master of France. The Law of 1795 for primary schools (R. 258 b) was but feebly administered under the Directory, as foreign wars absorbed the energies and resources of the Government. Napoleon's chief educational interest, too, was in opening up opportunities for talent to rise, in encouraging scientific work and higher specialized inst.i.tutions, and in developing schools of a type that would support the kind of government he had imposed upon France. The secondary and higher schools he established and promoted cost him money at a time when money was badly needed for national defense, and primary education was accordingly neglected during the time he directed the destinies of the nation. His educational organizations and work we shall refer to again in a later chapter.