The History of Education Part 60

1. PRIMARY SCHOOLS. The chapter on primary schools virtually reenacted the Law of 1795 (R. 258 b). Each commune [1] was required to furnish a schoolhouse and a home for the teacher. The teacher was to be responsible to local authorities, while the supervision of the school was placed under the prefect of the Department. The instruction was to be limited to reading, writing, and arithmetic, and the legal authorities were enjoined "to watch that the teachers did not carry their instructions beyond these limits." The teacher was to be paid entirely from tuition fees, though one fifth of the pupils were to be provided with free schooling. The State gave nothing toward the support of the primary schools.

The interest of Napoleon was not in primary or general education, but rather in training pupils for scientific and technical efficiency, and youths of superior ability for the professions and for executive work in the kind of government he had imposed upon France. To this end secondary and special education were made particular functions of the State, while primary education was left to the communes to provide as they saw fit.

They could provide schools and the parents could pay for the teacher, or not, as they might decide. There was no compulsion to enforce the requirement of a primary school, and no state aid to stimulate local effort to create one. In consequence not many state primary schools were established, and primary education remained, for another generation, in the hands of private teachers and the Church.

2. SECONDARY SCHOOLS. Chapters III and IV of the Law of 1802 made full provision for two types of secondary schools--the Communal Colleges and the Lycees [2]--to replace the Central Higher Schools established in 1795 (p. 518). These latter had lacked sadly in internal organization. They were merely day schools, lacking the dormitory and boarding arrangements which for over three centuries had characterized the French _colleges_. As a result they had not prospered. The Law of 1802 now replaced them with two types of residential secondary schools, in which the youth of the country, under careful supervision and discipline, might prepare for entrance to the higher special schools. These fixed the lines of future French development in secondary schools.

The standard secondary school now became known as the _Lycee_. These inst.i.tutions corresponded to the Colleges under the old regime, of which the College of Guyenne (R. 136) was a type. The instruction was to include the ancient languages, rhetoric, logic, ethics, belles-lettres, mathematics, and physical science, with some provision for additional instruction in modern languages and drawing. Each was to have at least eight "professors," an administrative head, a supervisor of studies, and a steward to manage the business affairs of the inst.i.tution. The State usually provided the building, often using some former church school which had been suppressed, and the cities in which the Lycees were located were required to provide them with furniture and teaching equipment. The funds for maintenance came from tuition fees, boarding and rooming income, and state scholarships, of which six thousand four hundred were provided.

Besides the Lycees, every school established by a munic.i.p.ality, or kept by an individual, which gave instruction in Latin, French, geography, history, and mathematics was designated as a secondary school, or Communal College. These inst.i.tutions usually offered but a partial Lycee course, and were tuition schools, being patronized by many parents whose tastes forbade the sending of their children to the lower-cla.s.s primary schools.

A license from the Government to operate was necessary before masters could be employed. They were to be maintained by the munic.i.p.ality, without any state encouragement beyond some grants for capable teachers and scholarships in the Lycees for meritorious pupils.

Within two years after the enactment of the Law of 1802 there had been created in France 46 Lycees, 378 secondary schools of various degrees of completeness, and 361 private schools of secondary grade had been opened.

A number of these disappeared later, in the reorganization of 1808. For the supervision of all these inst.i.tutions the Director General of Public Instruction appointed three Superintendents of Secondary Studies; and for the work of the schools he outlined the courses of instruction in detail, laid down the rules of administration, prepared and selected the textbooks, and appointed the "professors."

SPECIAL OR HIGHER SCHOOLS. The chapter of the Law of 1802 on Special Schools made provision for the creation of the following special "faculties" or schools for higher education for France:

3 medical schools, to replace the _Schools of Health_ of 1794 (p.

518).

10 law schools; increased to 12 in 1804 (Date of _Code Napoleon_, p. 518).

4 schools of natural history, natural philosophy, and chemistry.

2 schools of mechanical and chemical arts, 1 mathematical school, 1 school of geography, history, and political economy.

A fourth school of art and design.

Professors of astronomy for the observatories.

In 1803 the School of Arts and Trades was added (R. 282), and in 1804, after Napoleon had signed the Concordat with the Pope, thus restoring the Catholic religion (abolished 1791), schools of theology were added to the above list.

We have here, clearly outlined, the main paths along which French state educational organization had been tending and was in future to follow. The State had definitely dispossessed the Church as the controlling agency in education, and had definitely taken over the school as an instrument for its own ends. Though primary education had been temporarily left to the communes, and was soon to be turned over in large part to be handled by the Church for a generation longer, the supervision was to remain with the State. The middle-cla.s.s elements were well provided for in the new secondary schools, and these were now subject to complete supervision by the State. For higher education groups of Special Schools, or Teaching Faculties, replaced the older universities, which were not re-created until after the coming of the Third Republic (1871). The dominant characteristics of the state educational system thus created, aside from its emphasis on secondary and higher education, were its uniformity and centralized control. These characteristics were further stressed in the reorganization of 1808, and have remained prominent in French educational organization ever since.

CREATION OF THE UNIVERSITY OF FRANCE. By 1806 Napoleon was ready for a further and more complete organization of the public instruction of the State, and to this end the following law was now enacted (May 10, 1806):

Sec. 1. There will be formed, under the name of Imperial University, a body exclusively commissioned with teaching and public education throughout the Empire.

Sec. 2. The members of this corporation can contract civil, special, and temporary obligations.

Sec. 3. The organization of this corps will be given in the form of a law to the legislative body in the session of 1810.

In 1808, without the formality of further legislation, Napoleon issued an Imperial Decree creating the University of France. This was not only Napoleon's most remarkable educational creation, but it was an administrative and governing organization for education so in harmony with French spirit and French governmental ideas that it has persisted ever since, though changed somewhat in form with time.

The Decree began by declaring that "public instruction, in the whole Empire, is confined exclusively to the University," and that "no school, nor establishment for instruction, can be formed independent of the Imperial University, and without the authority of its chief." Unlike the University of Berlin (p. 574), created a year later, this was not a teaching university at all, but instead a governing, examining, and disbursing corporation, [3] presided over by a Grand Master and a Council of twenty-six members, all appointed by the Emperor. This Council decided all matters of importance, and exercised supervision and control over education of all kinds, from the lowest to the highest, throughout France.

[4] To a.s.sist the Council, general inspectors for medicine, law, theology, letters, and science were provided for, to visit and "examine the condition of instruction and discipline in the faculties, _lycees_, and colleges; to inform themselves in regard to the fidelity and ability of professors, regents, and ushers; to examine the students; and to make a complete survey of those inst.i.tutions, in their whole administration."

Beneath the Grand Master and Council the State was divided into twenty- seven "Academies" (administrative districts), each of which had a Rector, a Council of ten, and Inspectors, all appointed by the Grand Master. These exercised jurisdiction over teachers and pupils in all schools, and decided all local matters, subject to appeal to the Grand Master and Council.

Under this new administrative organization but little change was made in the schools from that provided for in the law of 1802. Primary education remained as before, private schools and Church schools supplying most of the need. All were under the supervision of the University, and all were instructed to make as a basis of their instruction: (1) the precepts of the Catholic religion; (2) fidelity to the Emperor, to the imperial monarchy, the depository of the happiness of the people, and to the Napoleonic dynasty, the conservator of the unity of France, and of all the ideas proclaimed by the Const.i.tution.

The _Lycees_ and Communal Colleges continued, much as before, [5] and during the half-century which followed, experienced a steady and substantial growth.

DEVELOPMENT OF THE LYCeES

Year 1809 1811 1813 1829 1847 1866 Lycees 35 36 36 36 54 74 Pupils 9,068 10,926 14,492 15,087 23,207 34,442 Free pupils 4,199 4,008 3,500 1,600

DEVELOPMENT OF THE COMMUNAL COLLEGES

Year 1809 1815 1830 1849 1855 1866 Colleges 273 323 332 306 244 251 Pupils 18,507 19,320 27,308 31,706 32,500 33,038

The Special Higher Schools were also continued, and to the list given (p.

593) Napoleon added (1808) a Superior Normal School (R. 283) to train graduates of the _Lycees_ for teaching. This opened in 1810, with thirty- seven students and a two-year course of instruction, and in 1815 a third year of method and practice work was added. With some varying fortunes, this inst.i.tution has continued to the present.

THE NEW INTEREST IN PRIMARY EDUCATION. The period from 1815 to 1830 in France is known as the Restoration. Louis XVIII was made King and ruled until his death in 1824, and his brother Charles X who followed until deposed by the Revolution of 1830. Though a representative of the old regime was recalled on the abdication of Napoleon, the great social gains of the Revolution were retained. There was no odious restoration of privilege and absolute monarchy. Frenchmen continued to be equal before the law; a form of const.i.tutional government was provided; the right of pet.i.tion was recognized; and the system of public instruction as Napoleon had organized it continued almost unchanged. For a decade at least there was less political reaction in France than in other continental States.

In matters of education, what had been provided was retained, and there seems (R. 285) to have been an increasing demand for additions and improvements, particularly in the matter of primary and middle-cla.s.s schools, and a willingness on the part of the communes to provide such advantages. Some small progress had been made in meeting these demands, before 1830.

In 1816 a small treasury grant (50,000 francs) was made for school books, model schools, and deserving teachers in the primary schools, and in 1829 this sum was increased to 300,000 francs. In 1818 the "Brothers of the Christian Schools" were permitted to be certificated for teaching on merely presenting their Letter of Obedience from the head of their Order, and in 1824 the cantonal school committees were remodeled so as to give the bishops and clergy entire control of all Catholic primary schools.

Monitorial instruction was introduced from England by private teachers, in an effort to supply the beginnings of education at small expense, and for a time this had some vogue, but never proved very successful. In 1815 the _Lycees_ were renamed Royal Colleges, but in 1848 the old name was restored, and has since been retained. In 1817 there were thirty-six _Lycees_, receiving an annual state subsidy of 812,000 francs; thirty years later the fifty-four in existence were receiving 1,500,000 francs.

From 1822 to 1829 the Higher Normal School was suppressed, and twelve elementary normal schools were created in its stead.

EARLY WORK UNDER THE MONARCHY OF 1830. In July, 1830, Charles X attempted to suppress const.i.tutional liberty, and the people rose in revolt and deposed him, and gave the crown to a new King, Louis-Philippe. He ruled until deposed by the creation of the Second Republic, in 1848. The "Monarchy of 1830" was supported by the leading thinkers of the time, prominent among whom were Thiers and Guizot, and one of the first affairs of State to which they turned their attention was the extension downward of the system of public instruction. The first steps were an increase of the state grant for primary schools (1830) to a million francs a year; the overthrow of the control by the priests of the cantonal school committees (1830): the abolition (1831) of the exemption of the religious orders from the examinations for teaching certificates; and the creation (1830-31) of thirty new normal schools.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 176 VICTOR COUSIN (1792-1867)]

The next step was to send (1831) M. Victor Cousin--Director of the restored Higher Normal School of France--on a mission to the German States, and in particular to Prussia, to study and report on the system of elementary education, teacher training, and educational organization and administration which had done so much for its regeneration. So convincing was Cousin's _Report_ [6] that, despite bitter national antipathies, it carried conviction throughout France. "It demonstrated to the government and the people the immense superiority of all the German States, even the most insignificant duchy, over any and every Department of France, in all that concerned inst.i.tutions of primary and secondary education." Cousin p.r.o.nounced the school law of Prussia (R. 280) "the most comprehensive and perfect legislative measure regarding primary education" with which he was acquainted, and declared his conviction that "in the present state of things, a law concerning primary education is indispensable in France."

The chief question, he continued, was "how to procure a good one in a country where there is a total absence of all precedents and experience in so grave a matter." Cousin then pointed out the bases, derived from Prussian experience and French historical development, on which a satisfactory law could be framed (R. 284 a-c); the desirability of local control and liberty in instruction (R. 284 f-g); and strongly recommended the organization of higher primary schools (a new creation; first recommended (1792) by Condorcet, p. 514) as well as primary schools (R.

284 e) to meet the educational needs of the middle cla.s.ses of the population of France.

THE LAW OF 1833. On the basis of Cousin's _Report_ a bill, making the maintenance of primary schools obligatory on every commune; providing for higher primary schools in the towns and cities; additional normal schools to train teachers for these schools; a corps of primary-school inspectors, to represent the State; and normal training and state certification required to teach in any primary school, was prepared. In an address to the Chamber of Deputies, in introducing the bill (1832), M. Guizot [7], the newly appointed Minister for Public Instruction, set forth the history of primary instruction in France up to 1832 (R. 285 a); described the two grades of primary instruction to be created (R. 285 b); and, emphasizing Cousin's maxim that "the schoolmaster makes the school," dwelt on the necessity for normal training and state certification for all primary teachers (R. 285 c). In preparing the bill it was decided not to follow the revolutionary ideas of free instruction, by lay and state teachers, or to enforce compulsion to attend, and for these omissions M. Guizot, in his _Memoires_ (R. 286), gives some very interesting reasons.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 177. OUTLINE OF THE MAIN FEATURES OF THE FRENCH STATE SCHOOL SYSTEM]

The bill became a law the following year, and is known officially as the Law of 1833. This Law forms the foundations upon which the French system of national elementary education has been developed, as the Napoleonic Law of 1802 and the Decree of 1808 have formed the basis for secondary education and French state administrative organization. A primary school was to be established in every commune, which was to provide the building, pay a fixed minimum salary to the teacher, and where able maintain the school. The state reserved the right to fix the pay of the teacher, and even to approve his appointment. A tuition fee was to be paid for attendance, but those who could not pay were to be provided with free places. The primary schools were to give instruction in reading, writing, arithmetic, the weights and measures, the French language, and morals and religion. The higher primary schools were to build on these subjects, and to offer instruction in geometry and its applications, linear drawing, surveying, physical science, natural history, history, geography, and music, and were to emphasize instruction in "the history and geography of France, and in the elements of science, as they apply it every day in the office, the workshop, and the field." [8] These latter were the _Burgerschulen_, recommended by Cousin (R. 284 e) on the basis of his study of Prussian education. [9]

[Ill.u.s.tration: PLATE 14. FRANcOIS PIERRE GUILLAUME GUIZOT (1787-1874) Creator of the French primary school system]

The primary schools were to follow a uniform plan, and as a guide a _Manual of Primary Instruction_ was issued, giving detailed directions as to what was to be done. In sending out a copy of the Law to the primary teachers of France, M. Guizot enclosed a personal letter to each, informing him as to what the government expected of him in the new work (R. 287). During the four years that M. Guizot remained Minister of Public Instruction he rendered a remarkable service, well described by Matthew Arnold (R. 288), in awakening his countrymen to the new problem of popular education then before them.

The results under the Law of 1833 were large [10] and the subsequent legislation under the monarchy of 1830 was important. For the first time in French history an earnest effort was made to provide education suited to the needs of the great ma.s.s of the people, and the marked development of schools which ensued showed how eagerly they embraced the opportunities offered their children, though the schooling was neither compulsory nor gratuitous. In 1837 Infant Schools, for still younger children, were authorized, and in 1840 state aid for these was begun. In 1836 cla.s.ses for adults, first begun in Paris in 1820, were authorized generally, but it was not until 1867 that these were formally incorporated into the state school system. In 1845 state aid for the Communal Colleges, as well as for the _Lycees_, was begun.

DEVELOPMENT OF INFANT SCHOOLS

Year...... 1827 1837 1840 1843 1846 1850 1863 1886 1897 Schools... 1 251 555 1489 1861 1735 3308 6696 5683

REACTION AFTER 1848. In France, as in Europe generally, the people were steadily becoming more liberal, as they became better educated, while the rulers were becoming more autocratic. The result was the series of revolutions of 1848, which broke out first in France, and finally extended to most of the countries of continental Europe. In France the King, Louis- Philippe, was forced to abdicate; a Republic, based on universal manhood suffrage, was proclaimed; and Louis Napoleon, a nephew of Napoleon I, was elected President. In 1851 Napoleon established himself as Dictator; prepared a new const.i.tution providing for an Empire; and, in 1852, dissolved the Second Republic and a.s.sumed the t.i.tle of Emperor Napoleon III. This Second Empire lasted until 1870, when France was humiliated by the Prussians as the latter had been by Napoleon I in 1806. The Emperor and his armies were taken prisoners (1870) and, in 1871, the Prussians occupied Paris and crowned the new Emperor of united and Imperial Germany in the palace of the French Kings at Versailles. A Third Republic now succeeded, and this has lasted to the present time.

The period from 1848 to 1870 in France was a period of middle-cla.s.s rule, and reaction in education as in government. In 1848 a Sub-Commission on Primary Education reported in opposition to the state primary schools. The troubles of 1848 had brought to view the political restlessness which had taken possession of the teachers, as well as other cla.s.ses in society. The new schools were naturally suspected of being the source of the popular discontent. Many teachers had sympathized with, and some had taken part in the disturbances, and teachers generally were now placed under close surveillance. Some of the leaders were forced into exile until after 1870.

Religious schools, regarded as more favorable to monarchical needs and purposes, were now encouraged, and the number of religious schools increased from 6464 in 1850, to 11,391 by 1864. Private schools, too, were given full freedom to compete with the state schools, and the pay of the primary teachers was reduced. The course in the normal schools was condemned as too ambitious, and, in 1851, was cut down. The course of instruction in the primary schools, on the other hand, was, unlike in Prussia, broadened instead of restricted, and in particular emphasis was placed, in keeping with nearly a century of French tradition, on scientific and practical subjects. [11] The law of 1850 stated the requirements for primary schools as follows:

Art. 23. Primary instruction comprises moral and religious instruction, reading, writing, the elements of the French language, computation, and the legal system of weights and measures. It may comprise, in addition, arithmetic applied to practical operations, the elements of history (a required subject after 1867) and geography, notions of the physical sciences and of natural history applicable to the ordinary purposes of life, elementary instruction in agriculture, trade, and hygiene; and surveying, leveling, linear drawing, singing, and gymnastics.

Religious instruction prospered under the Second Empire, and the state primary schools lost in importance. The _Lycees_ continued largely as cla.s.sical inst.i.tutions, though after 1865 the crowding of the rising sciences began to dispute the supremacy of cla.s.sical studies. There were, however, many voices of discontent, particularly from exiled teachers (R.

289), and the way was rapidly being prepared for the creation of a stronger and better state school system as soon as political conditions were propitious.