FRENCH
EDUCATIONAL
IDEALS OF TODAY
Buisson and
Farrington
i^-
FRENCH
EDUCATIONAL IDEALS
OF TODAY
AN ANTHOLOGY OF THE HOLDERS
OF FRENCH EDUCATIONAL THOUGHT
OF THE PRESENT
Edited by
FERDINAND BUISSON
Form^y Director of Primary Education in France
and Member of the Chamber of Deputies
and
FREDERIC ERNEST FARRINGTON
Sometime Associate Professor of
G)mparative Education, Columbia University;
Headmaster Chevy Chase School,
Washington, D. C.
Yonkers-on-Hudson, New York
WORLD BOOK COMPANY
1919
WORLD BOOK COMPANY ^
THE HOUSE OF APPLIED KNOWLEDGE
Established, 1905, by Caspar W. Hodgson
YONKEBS-ON-HUDSON, NeW YoRK
2126 Prairie Avenue, Chicago
This volume has been subventioned by the
French Ministry of Public Instruction and
the Fine Arts. The publishers take pleasure
in adding it to their list of professional works
on education as being thoroughly in accord
with their motto, "Books that apply the
world's knowledge to the world's needs," and
also as a means of furthering, in the special
field of education, friendly mutual relations
and interchange of ideas between France and
the United States
Copyright, 1919, by World Book Company
CopjT^ght in Great Britain
All righta reserved
TO THOSE VALIANT SOLDIERS
OF FRANCE AND OF AMERICA WHO
FOUGHT SHOULDER TO SHOULDER ON
THE BATTLEFIELDS OF THE NEW WORLD
FOR AMERICAN FREEDOM, AND ON
THE BATTLEFIELDS OF THE OLD WORLD
it- FOR UNIVERSAL FREEDOM
Digitized by the Internet Archive
in 2007 with funding from
IVIicrosoft Corporation
http://www.archive.org/details/frencheducationaOObuisrich
FOREWORD
Two members of the International Congress on Educa-
tion, held at Oakland, California, in 1915, noticed
regretfully to what extent the personnel of the two
systems of education in France and the United States,
although animated by a common inspiration, were
ignorant of each other's purposes and ideals.
It seemed to M. Ferdinand Buisson, oflficial repre-
sentative at Oakland of the French Ministry of Public
Instruction, formerly Director of Primary Education
in France, and to Frederic Ernest Farrington, execu-
tive secretary of the Congress and connected with
the United States Bureau of Education, that a first
attempt at bringing these two systems of schools
closer together could be made by exchanging two
volumes of texts chosen from representative educators
in both countries, each volume to be translated into
the language of the other country. Pursuant to this
feeling, it was determined to bring out simultaneously
in the two countries two volumes which should portray
to American readers the fundamental ideals on which
the French system of education is grounded, and to
French readers in similar fashion the dominant ideals
underlying our American educational spirit. French
Educational Ideals of Today represents the American
part of the plan, and we hope that it may help the
American public to understand better the French
educational point of view.
Two subjects, lay education and moral instruction,
may seem to have received an undue amount of atten-
tion. These are really two phases of the same question,
separation of Church and State, or lay versus clerical
vi FOREWORD
control of education, and they still occupy a dominant
position in French educational discussion. Whether
the reputed revival of religious interest will have any
bearing on this point remains to be seen. At all events,
today lay control is unquestionably in the ascendant
in France.
Obviously a limited number of extracts will give
but a suggestion of the complete picture we should
like to show, but we trust that the consummation of
the plan will give French teachers a glimpse of America
and American teachers a glimpse of France.
F. B.
F. E. F.
May, 1919
CONTENTS
PAOB
Foreword v
Introduction xi
By Dr. P. P. Claxton, United States Commissioner of
Education
Edgar Quinet 1
A Lay School for a Lay Society .... 1
Jules Ferry 5
Letter to the Primary Teachers of France . . 5
Our Need of Educators 15
Program for Elementary Education ... 17
Octave Greard 32
New Mipthods in the Paris Primary Schools . . 32
Felix Pecaut 43
An Experiment in Moral Teaching at Fontenay-
aux-Roses 43
Non-Sectarianism 58
The Use and Abuse of Pedagogy .... 64
The Woman Normal School Principal ... 69
Madame Kergomard 87
What Is an Infant School ? 87
The New Program for Infant Schools ... 88
Ernest Lavisse .91
The Fatherland . • ^^
An Open Letter to the Teachers of France on Civic
Education 103
Jean Jaures . 110
The Schoolmaster and Socialism . . . .110
The Sentiment of Human Dignity, the Soul of the
Lay School 116
The School and Life . . . . . .119
Georges Clemenceau 122
The Schoolmaster 122
Ferdinand Buisson 128
The Schoolmaster as a Pioneer of Democracy . 128
Education of the Will 137
vii
viii CONTENTS
PAGE
E. Anthoine 162
Up and Down through Our Schools . . .162
Edmond Blanguernon 167
Attractive Problems 167
A Sound Body 169
A Morning Prayer 173
Ethical Lessons 175
On the Threshold of April 178
Georges Leygues . . . . . . .182
Education 182
Emile Durckheim 188
The School of Tomorrow 188
Autobiographical Sketches 193
N. Bizet 206
The Teacher and the Adolescent .... 206
Gabriel Seailles 208
The Real Meaning of Non-Sectarianism . . 208
Alfred Moulet 212
Program for Moral Education . . . .212
Edouard Petit 216
Marriages between Teachers . . . .216
The Mutual Benefit Association in the School . 219
School Excursions 223
Charles Wagner 226
The Lesson of the Ax and the Key . . . 226
Lithe Land of "Just About" .... 230
Henri Marion . 236
Questions of Discipline 236
F. Alengry . . . . " . . . . 242
Cultivation and Development of the Reason in Our
Schools . .242
Emile Boutroux 245
Morality and Religion 245
CONTENTS ix
PAGE
Le Pere Laberthonniebe . . , . . 248
Authority in Education 248
Mgr. Alfred Baudrillart 252
On the Teaching of History 252
Jules Payot . . . . " . . . . 257
MiHtary Service and Self-Control .... 257
Louis Liard 260
The Place of Science in Secondary Education . 260
Jules Tannery 267
The Teaching of Elementary Geometry . . 267
Alfred Cij^iset 273
The Study of Latin and Greek and the Democracy 273
Madame Jules Favre 280
Extracts from the Letters of Madame Jules Favre 280
On Moral Teaching 285
Extract from Address at the First General Re-
union of the Graduates of Sevres . . . 287
B. Jacob 288
Resignation 288
GusTAVE Lanson 295
The Modern Subjects in Secondary Education . 295
Paul Desjardins 309
Interpretation of Texts in the Lycee . . . 309
Gabriel Compayre 316
The Question of Overwork 316
Albert Dumont 318
Democracy and Education 318
Democracy and the Three Degrees of Education . 319
Paul Painleve 321
Address before the International Educational Con-
ference 321
INTRODUCTION
Stimulated by a common danger, France and the
United States, the two foremost republics of the world,
have been drawn closer together during these last
years than ever before. Democracy has been at stake,
and our two great nations have joined with the other
allies against a common foe. As the German school-
master won the Franco-Prussian war, so the ideals
that have inspired the heroes of the two great demo-
cratic nations today have been the ideals inculcated
in the schoolroom.
The good feeling that has so long existed between the
sister republics has been revivified and more firmly
established, and whatever conduces to a better under-
standing of the national viewpoints is to be encouraged.
It is on this basis that I am happy to write this brief
word of introduction to a book that sets before the
American public in general and the American teaching
force in particular the educational ideals that have
dominated in France during the late nineteenth and
the early twentieth centuries.
After reading the simple yet eloquent phrases of
Ernest Lavisse, the leading historian of France, one
cannot wonder at the sturdy and dogged fortitude of
the French poilu. Animated by an international
nationalism, M. Lavisse in this address in 1905 soimded
with prophetic foresight the dangers that France
actually had to face in 1914. Mgr. Baudrillart echoes
the same patriotic spirit of sacrifice in no less clarion
notes.
Educators are asking each other, " What changes
will the war bring in our schools.?" M. Durckheim,
xi
xii INTRODUCTION
in the brief extract quoted, utters a word of construc-
tive criticism on the educational ideals of the present and
indicates the direction in which future modifications
should tend. " Social discipline" is the keynote.
Practical suggestions are found in M. Petit's two
articles on "Mutual Benefit Associations" and "School
Excursions," while several writers set forth the ideals
of the lay school divorced from ecclesiastical control
which is still one of the much-discussed questions in
French education. Notice especially articles by Edgar
Quinet, Jules Ferry, Felix Pecaut, Georges Clemenceau,
Ferdinand Buisson, Gabriel Seailles, and Paul Pain-
leve.
In these days of youthful irresponsibility, Charles
Wagner's "In the Land of *Just About'" is particu-
larly timely, and is well worth the attention of old and
young alike.
May this contribution conduce to a more intelligent
and so more sympathetic acquaintance with the spirit
of French education on the part of the American people !
P. P. Claxton
Washington, D.C.
FRENCH EDUCATIONAL IDEALS
OF TODAY
EDGAR QUINET
Edgar Quinet (1803-1875) was professor at the College de
France at the end of Louis-Philippe's reign. With his colleague
and friend, Michelet, he gave those famous lectures which aroused
the enthusiasm of the youth of the liberal party and the wrath of
the reactionaries. Elected deputy in 1848, he protested ener-
getically against the coup d'Stat of December 2, 1851, and went
into exile, to return only upon the fall of the Empire in 1870. He
spent these nineteen years in awakening the French conscience by
his forceful writings. In 1850, while a member of the legislative
assembly and at the very moment of the clerical reaction, he wrote
U enseignement du peuplcy in which he resolutely states the principles
of a national education animated by the republican spirit. It is
Edgar Quinet's plan that was realized by the Third Republic
through the school laws which have been in force since 1880.
A LAY SCHOOL FOR A LAY SOCIETY ^
No particular church being the soul of France, the
teaching which diffuses this soul should be indepen-
dent of every particular church.
The teacher is not merely the priest's assistant;
he teaches what no priest can teach, the alliance of
churches in the same society.
The teacher has a more universal doctrine than the
priest, for he speaks to Catholic, Protestant, and Jew
alike, and he brings them all into the same civil com-
munion.
The teacher is obliged to say : "You are all children
of the same God and of the same country ; take hold
1 Extract from Venseignement du peuple, 1850.
1
2 /, FRENCH KpUCATIONAL IDEALS OF TODAY
of each other's hands until death." The priest is
obhged to say: "You are the children of different
churches, but among these mothers there is but one
who is legitimate. All those who do not belong to her
are accursed ; they shall remain orphans. Be, then,
separated in time, since you must be separated in
eternity."
Do you think it would be a misfortune for your child
thus to be born to civil life with any feeling of concord,
peace, and union toward his brethren? Is the first
smile that heaven has given him, given him to curse?
Must his first lisping be an anathema ?
The intention of the sacerdotal castes has always
been that they are the only power capable of giving
a foundation to civil and political institutions. Look
at them wherever they have held sway, among the
Hindus or in the states of Rome. While they reigned,
each detail of the civil state, its administration, even
the police, were things sacred; in the theocracy of
Moses the smallest hygienic or agricultural regulation
came from the wisdom on high. Every prescription
of the priest is of divine institution; the thought of
heaven permeates the whole body of laws.
As soon as lay society frees itself from the rule of the
priests, it is considered to have broken off all relation
with the eternal order. The same laws which formerly
were filled with the spirit of God are now but the
caprices of chance. From the moment that this State,
which was said to be of divine institution, dispenses
with the priest, it is proclaimed atheistic. Yesterday
it was eternal wisdom, manifested and written in the
laws. Today it is a blind person who pushes away
EDGAR QUINET 3
his guide. It knows nothing, it sees nothing. Sep-
arated from the priest, what remains for it to teach?
Not even the wisdom which the ant teaches the ant.
If society without the priest does not beheve in jus-
tice, why does it seek from century to century to come
nearer to justice in the development of law.? If it
does not believe in truth, why does it pursue truth in
science .f^ If it does not believe in order, why does it
pursue order in the succession of its institutions and
revolutions ?
Justice, truth, absolute order, what are they but
the eternal source of divine ideas; in other words,
that essence of the God on which the customs of the
State are ordered .f^ This God of order and of justice,
this eternal geometer who descends by degrees into
the very groundwork of the laws of all civilized peoples,
is not the one who pleases the sacerdotal castes. Is
this a reason for conceding that a society contains no
principle outside its Church, no moral teaching outside
its clergy, or that all light dies out if it is not lighted
at the altar ?
People repeat incessantly that lay society has no
fundamental principle and consequently nothing to
teach. At least you must admit that better than
any one else it can teach itself, and that is precisely
the point in question in lay teaching.
For my part I have always claimed that society
possesses a principle which it alone is in a position to
profess, and that on this principle is founded its ab-
solute right to teach in civil matters. That which
forms the foundation of this society, makes its existence
possible, and prevents it from falling to pieces, is pre-
4 FRENCH EDUCATIONAL IDEALS OF TODAY
cisely a point which cannot be taught with equal au-
thority by any of the official cults. This society lives
on the principle of the love of citizens for one another
independently of their beliefs.
Do you wish to free lay teaching? Dare affirm
what three centuries have affirmed before you, that
it is sufficient unto itself, that it exists of itself, that
it itself is belief and science.
How has modern science been constituted.^ By
breaking away from the science of the Church. The
civil \siw? By breaking away from canon law. The
political constitution .f^ By breaking away from the
religion of the State. All the elements of modern
society have developed by emancipating themselves
from the Church. The most important of all — edu-
cation — remains to be emancipated. By a conclusion
deduced from all that precedes, is it not clear that we
can regulate it only on condition that it be completely
separated from ecclesiastical education ?
JULES FERRY
Jules Ferry was born at St. Die in 1832 and died in Paris, March
17, 1893. He was a member of the Republican faction opposed to
the government at the end of the reign of Napoleon III, mayor of
Paris dm-ing the siege of 1870-71, a member of the National As-
sembly, then of the Chamber of Deputies, where he became one
of the leaders of the left wing. From 1879 to 1885 he was several
times Minister of Public Instruction.
Deriving his inspiration from Condorcet's "Plan of Education'*
and from the ideas of Edgar Quinet, he brought about the enact-
ment of the school laws which have been justly named the "Ferry
laws." These laws provide for compulsory, free, elementary edu-
cation to be given by laymen, for the secondary instruction of
girls, for professional schools and normal schools. They instituted
the "Higher Council of Public Instruction" and laid the founda-
tion of the system of national education which has been gradually
realized by the Third Republic.
Jules Ferry was at the same time founder of the French colonial
empire, an achievement which made him very unpopular for a long
time. He bore this unpopularity with exceptional dignity and
strength of character.
One year after the promulgation of the law of March 28, 1882,
the minister addressed to the primary school teachers the letter
published herewith, as conveying the most authentic statement of
the real spirit of the new legislation.
LETTER TO THE PRIMARY TEACHERS OF
FRANCE, NOVEMBER 17, 1883
The academic year just opened will be the second
since the law of March 28, 1882, went into effect. At
this time I cannot refrain from sending you personally
a few brief words which you will probably not find
inopportune, in view of the experience you have just
had with the new regime. Of the diverse obligations
it imposes upon you, assuredly the one nearest your
heart, the one which brings you the heaviest increase
of work and anxiety, is your mission to instruct your
5
6 FRENCH EDUCATIONAL IDEALS OF TODAY
pupils in ethics and citizenship. You will be grateful
to me, I am sure, for answering the questions which
preoccupy you at present, by trying to determine the
character and the purpose of this teaching. In order
to succeed more surely I shall, with your permission,
put myself in your place for an instant to show you
by examples borrowed from your everyday experience
how you can do your duty, and your whole duty, in
this respect.
The law of March 28 is characterized by two pro-
visions which supplement each other and harmonize
completely : on the one hand it excludes the teaching
of any particular dogma; on the other it gives first
place among required subjects to moral and civic
teaching. Religious instruction is the province of the
family ; moral instruction belongs to the school.
Our legislators did not mean to pass an act that was
purely negative. Doubtless their first object was to
separate the school from the Church, to assure freedom
of conscience to both teachers and pupils, in short, to
distinguish between two domains too long confused;
the domain of beliefs, which are personal, free, and
variable ; and that of knowledge, which, by universal
consent, is common and indispensable to all. But
there is something else in the law of March 28. It
states the determination of the people to found here
at home a national education, and to found it on the
idea of duty and of right, which the legislator does not
hesitate to inscribe among the fundamental truths of
which no one can be ignorant.
It is on you, Sir, that the public has* counted to
realize this all-important part of education. While
JULES FERRY 7
you are relieved from religious teaching, there never
was a question of relieving you from moral teaching.
That would have deprived you of the chief dignity
of your profession. On the contrary, it seemed quite
natural that the master, while teaching the children
to read and write, should also impart to them those
simple rules of moral conduct which are not less uni-
versally accepted than the rules of language or of
arithmetic.
Has the Parliament made a mistake in conferring
such functions upon you ? Has it presumed too much
on your strength, on your willingness, on your com-
petence .^^ Assuredly it would have incurred this re-
proach had it planned suddenly to commission eighty
thousand teachers to give a sort of course ex cathedra
on the principles, origins, and ultimate ends of morality.
But whoever conceived anything of the sort.f^ Im-
mediately after the passing of the law, the Higher
Council of Public Instruction took care to explain
what was expected of you, and it did so in terms defy-
ing misinterpretation. I am inclosing a copy of the
programs it has approved, and they will give you
a precious commentary on the law. I cannot too
strongly urge you to reread them and draw inspira-
tion from them. You will find in them the answer
to the contradictory criticisms which reach your ears.
Let me explain that the task is neither beyond your
strength nor unworthy of you; that it is exceedingly
limited but nevertheless of great importance, extremely
simple but at the same time extremely difficult.
Your r61e as regards moral education is exceedingly
limited. Properly speaking, you have nothing new
8 FRENCH EDUCATIONAL IDEALS OF TODAY
to teach, nothing which is not familiar to you as well
as to all honest men. Thus when people speak of
your mission and your apostolate you will not mis-
understand. You are in no way sent fofth with a
new Gospel ; our legislators did not wish to make of
you either a philosopher or an improvised theologian.
They ask nothing one cannot ask any man with heart
and good judgment. It is impossible that you should
see all these children crowding round you day after
day, listening to your lessons, observing your conduct,
drawing inspiration from your example, at the age
when the mind is awakening, when the heart is being
opened and the memory enriched, without yoiu* having
the desire to profit by their receptivity and their con-
fidence. There must necessarily come to you the idea
of giving them, together with the school learning
properly so called, the first principles of morality;
I mean simply those time-honored principles which we
have received from our fathers and mothers, and
which we all consider it an honor to follow in our
everyday life, without taking the trouble to discuss
their philosophical basis.
You are the father's helper and in some respects his
substitute. Speak, therefore, to his child as you would
like to have a teacher talk to your own, with force and
authority, whenever it concerns a question of undis-
puted truth or a common precept; with the greatest
reserve, as soon as you risk touching upon a religious
sentiment of which you are not the judge.
If you are perplexed at times to know just how far
you may go in yom* moral teaching, the following is a
practical rule on which you can rely : Whatever the
JULES FERRY 9
precept, the maxim, that you are on the point of pro-
posing to your pupils, ask yourself if, as far as you
know, there is a single honest man that could be of-
fended by what you are about to say. Ask yourself
if a father, nay if a single father, present in your class-
room and listening to you, could in good faith refuse
his approval of what he would hear. If so, refrain
from saying it. If not, speak fearlessly, for what you
are going to impart to the child is not your own wisdom ;
it is the wisdom of the human race ; it is one of those
universally accepted ideas that centuries of civiliza-
tion have added to the heritage of humanity. Narrow
as such a sphere of action may seem to you, make it a
point of honor never to depart from it. Remain on
this side of the boundary line rather than run the risk
of overstepping it. You can never be too scrupulous
about touching that sacred and delicate thing, the
conscience of a child.
But when you have once faithfully confined your-
self to the humble and safe region of ordinary morality,
what do we ask of you? Speeches, learned disserta-
tions, brilliant exposition, a teaching that is scholarly ?
No. The family and society merely ask you to help
bring up their children well, to make them honest
citizens. This is saying that they expect of you not
words but acts ; not one more subject entered upon
your program, but a very practical service that you
can render the country rather as a man than as a
teacher.
It is not a question of a series of truths to be demon-
strated, but of what is far more laborious, a long chain
of moral influences to exert on the young by force of
10 FRENCH EDUCATIONAL IDEALS OF TODAY
patience, by firmness, by kindness, by the strength
of your character and your persuasive power. Par-
liament is counting on you to teach our children to
live properly by the very way you live with them and
before them. It has dared claim for you that a few
generations hence the habits and ideas of the pop-
ulations among whom you have worked will attest
the good effects of your lessons in moral instruction.
History will justify this opinion of the French Chambers
inspired by our teaching body : that each teacher is
a natural aid to moral and social progress, a person
whose influence cannot fail to elevate in some measure
the moral standard. This r61e is great enough for you
to feel no need of extending it. Subsequently others
will take it upon themselves to finish the work you
have begun and will add to this elementary instruc-
tion in ethics a complement of philosophic or religious
culture. For your part, hold to the task which society
assigns you and which has a nobility of its own.
In such a work, as you know, it is not with diffi-
culties of theory and involved speculation that you
will have to cope; it is with faults, vices, and coarse
prejudices. It is not a question of condemning these
faults, — does not every one condemn them ? — but of
making them disappear by unobtrusively winning a
succession of small victories. Thus it does not suffice
that your pupils should have understood and retained
your lessons ; it is especially necessary that their
characters should feel the effects. It is not in school,
it is more particularly outside the school, that one will
be able to appreciate the value of your teaching.
Do you wish to evaluate it yourself even now, to
JULES FERRY 11
see if your teaching is well started on this, the only
good road ? Find out if it has already led your pupils
to practical reforms. You have spoken to them, for
instance, of the respect due to law. If this lesson does
not prevent them when they leave the classroom from
committing a fraud or even a trifling act of poaching
or contraband, you have failed to accomplish your
purpose ; the moral lesson has not sunk in.
Or, again, you have explained to them what justice
is, what truth is. Are they deeply enough impressed
to prefer to confess a fault rather than conceal it by a
falsehood, and to object to unscrupulousness or to
partiality ?
You have branded selfishness and praised self-
sacrifice. Have they the next moment abandoned a
comrade in peril to think only of themselves? Your
lesson must be taught again.
Do not let these lapses discourage you. It is not
the work of a day to form or reform a free soul. Doubt-
less many lessons are necessary to accomplish this,
with reading and maxims, written, copied, read, and
reread; but especially necessary are practice, effort,
acts, and habits. Children have a moral apprentice-
ship to serve just as they have an apprenticeship in
reading and arithmetic. The child who knows how
to recognize and put letters together does not yet
know how to read ; the one who knows how to trace
letters one after another does not know how to write.
What do they both need? Practice, habit, facility,
rapidity, and sureness of execution. In the same way
a child who repeats the first principles of morality
does not yet know how to conduct himself; he must
12 FRENCH EDUCATIONAL IDEALS OF TODAY
be trained to apply these principles readily, naturally,
almost instinctively. Only then will morality have
passed from his mind into his heart, whence it will
become part of his very life. Then he will be unable
to forget it.
From this very practical character of moral edu-
cation in the primary school, it seems to me easy to
formulate rules which should guide you in your choice
of the means of teaching. One method only will per-
mit you to obtain the results we wish. It is the one
the Higher Council has recommended — few formulas,
few abstractions, many examples, and particularly
examples taken from life. These lessons demand a
different tone, a differerft aspect, from all others, some-
thing that is more personal, more intimate, more
serious. It is not the book that is speaking ; it is not
even the functionary ; it is, as it were, the father of a
family, with all the sincerity of his conviction and his
feeling.
Does this mean that you will be asked to launch out
into a sort of perpetual improvisation, without in-
spiration and support from outside.^ No, far from it.
Philosophers and publicists, several of whom are
among the greatest authorities of our time and country,
have considered it an honor to become your collabora-
tors. They have put at your disposal the finest and
most valuable of their teachings. For the last few
months we have seen the number of textbooks on moral
and civic instruction grow almost week by week.
Nothing proves better than this the value public
opinion attaches to thorough moral training in the
primary school. Instruction in morality by laymen
JULES FERRY 13
is not deemed impossible or useless, since the measure
passed by our legislators has instantly awakened so
powerful an echo throughout the country.
Here, however, it is important to distinguish more
clearly between what is essential and what is accessory,
between the moral teaching that is obligatory and the
method of teaching which is not prescribed. Some
persons not conversant with modern pedagogy might
think that our schoolbooks on moral and civic in-
struction were to be a sort of new catechism, but this
is an erro'- into which neither you nor your colleagues
could have fallen. You know too well that with the
system of free and open competition, which edu-
cational publications universally enjoy, no book is
imposed by fiat of the educational authorities. Like
all the other books you use, yea, even more than these,
the textbook on moral instruction is a manual and
nothing more, an instrument which you utilize without
becoming a slave to it.
Ijr~ In all three of your classes, it is yoiu* influence which
\ is important, not that of the text. The book should
not come between your pupils and you, chilling your
words, dulling the impression on the minds of your
pupils, reducing you to the role of a mere drill master
of moral theory. Remember, the book is made for
you, and not you for the book. It is your adviser and
guide, but you are to remain above all the guide and
adviser of your pupils.
In order to furnish you every means for enriching
your teaching with material drawn from the best
works and to prevent you from being restricted to any
particular text, I am sending you the complete list
14 FRENCH EDUCATIONAL ICEALS OF TODAY
of treatises on moral and civic instruction adopted
this year by the teachers in the different academies.
The pedagogical library of the principal town in each
canton will receive these treatises from the ministry,
if it does not already possess them, and will put them
at your disposal. After examining them you are
free either to choose one of these works and make it
one of the regular readers of the class, or else to com-
bine the use of several of these texts, all selected, of
course, from the general list inclosed; or again you
may reserve the right to choose extracts from dif-
ferent authors to be read, dictated, or learned. It is
but just that you should have in this matter as much
liberty as you have responsibility. But whichever
solution you prefer, I cannot too often impress this on
your mind : Let it be understood that you place your
self-respect, your honor, not in the introduction of
this or that book, but in causing the practical teach-
ing of good rules of conduct and worthy sentiments
to penetrate profoundly the rising generation.
It depends upon you, I am convinced, by your
method of procedure, to hasten the moment when this
teaching will be not only accepted, but appreciated,
honored, and loved, as it deserves. The very people
whose anxiety certain persons have sought to arouse,
will not long remain blind to what is taking place
before their very eyes. When they have seen you
at work, when they find out that you have no secret
intention, that you are trying merely to give them
back their children better educated and better, when
they notice that your lessons begin to take effect, that
their children come from your class with better habits,
JULES FERRY 15
gentler and more respectful manners, more upright-
ness, more obedience, a greater liking for work, greater
submission to duty, in short with all the signs of a
constant moral uplift, then the cause of the secular
school will be won, the good sense of the father and the
heart of the mother will not be deceived. They will
not need to be taught the esteem, the confidence, and
the gratitude they owe you.
I have tried to give you as precise an idea as possible
of the newer and more subtle aspects of your task.
Permit me to add that these will also bring you the
most peculiar and enduring satisfaction. I should be
happy if I had succeeded through this letter in showing
you all the importance the government of the Re-
public attaches to it, and if I had inspired you to re-
double your efforts in order to prepare a generation
of good citizens for our country.
OUR NEED OF EDUCATORS ^
To those of you in my audience who direct normal
schools, I desire to say, before leaving, what is as-
suredly in your minds, what is in your hearts, what
you know and feel as I do, and what nevertheless you
should be told by one who at the present moment has
the supreme honor of directing the education of the
nation. What we expect of you, the lofty end for
which we appeal to your zeal, to all your generous
desire for progress and light, is this : We wish you to
provide us not only with teachers but with educators !
We wish that the type of teacher criticized so keenly
^ Extract from an address at the annual meeting of the Socikes Savantes,
at the Sorbonne, April 2, 1880.
16 FRENCH EDUCATIONAL IDEALS OF TODAY
a few years ago by M. Michel Breal, in a fine book
which you have all read — the teacher who, he says,
"is less like a teacher than a subordinate officer in a
training camp, the teacher who exists in spite of the
great progress we have been making for the last ten
years" — we wish that thanks to you. Gentlemen,
this type should completely disappear.
We want educators. Good heavens ! is this then
too ambitious .f* Is this a Utopia of which we are
dreaming? Will it continue to be said that in order
to be an educator one must assume a certain char-
acter, wear a certain garb, and that there are no lay
educators ? Ah ! Gentlemen, that is not possible !
And you shall see that it is not true. In proof
thereof I need only cite the present tendency of peda-
gogical science, the new methods which are being de-
veloped and are beginning to spread abroad and to
triumph. Those methods no longer dictate the rule
to the child like a decree but make him discover it for
himself; propose first of all to excite and awaken the
child's spontaneity, to watch over and guide his normal
development, instead of imprisoning him in ready-
made rules which he does not in the least understand,
instead of hemming him about with formulse which
only weary him and whose sole result is to fill his
little head with vague and ponderous notions. Those
methods of Froebel and Pestalozzi which you apply
every day are practicable only on one condition;
namely, that the master, the teacher, enter into inti-
mate and constant relations w^th the pupil. Can
object lessons be properly taught unless there is a
profound sympathy and a real love for the child?
JULES FERRY 17
With the textbooks and the old methods one could
dispense with these sentiments and this constant self-
sacrifice; but in applying the new methods, those
stimuli of thought, in order to give real object lessons
that are intelligent and worth while, one must labor
earnestly, one must put one's whole heart into it. In
short, one must control through humanity rather
than the rod; and when the human side appears,
there is the educator.
All this constitutes so great and so beautiful a work
that it seems to me, if I may be permitted to say so,
that to perfgrm the high functions of a normal school
principal there can never be too much knowledge in a
well-organized mind, never too much grandeur in a
teacher's character, never in a well-born heart too
much love, too much devotion, too much passion for
the good and for progress. You can justly say to
yourselves that you are performing one of the grandest
and most holy functions of society. You are training
educators. It is a greater work, I dare affirm, than
training doctors or officers. Can you conceive a
nobler and a surer means of contributing to the re-
building and the greatness of the nation ?
PROGRAM FOR ELEMENTARY EDUCATION ^
I. Physical Education
1. PURPOSE OF PHYSICAL EDUCATION
Physical education has a double aim : on the one
hand, to strengthen the child's body, give firmness
* Official program of the lower primary schools.
18 FRENCH EDUCATIONAL IDEALS OF TODAY
to his constitution, and place him in conditions hy-
gienically most favorable to his general development;
on the other hand, to give him early in life that adroit-
ness, agility, and manual dexterity, that promptness
and sureness of movement, w^^>^ invaluable for all,
are particularly necessary for pupils of the primary
schools, the majority of whom will be compelled to
work with their hands.
Without losing its essential character as an edu-
cational institution and without transforming itself
into a workshop, the primary scl . can and ought
to give this instruction sufficient attention so as to
prepare and, in a certain way, to predispose the boy
to his future work as an artisan or soldier, and the girl
to housework and to woman's work in general.
2. METHOD
Since bodily exercise is a diversion from scholastic
work and the regular lessons, it will usually be a simple
matter to have the children take it up happily and en-
thusiastically, to make them consider it a real recrea-
tion.
The course of teaching is regulated in great detail
in the manuals published under the auspices of the
Ministry, as well as in the directions given by special
teachers and instructors.
The work in manual training for boys is divided into
two parts : one comprises various exercises for giving
suppleness and dexterity to the fingers, rapidity and
precision to the movements; the other comprises
graded exercises in modeling which serve to supple-
JULES FERRY 19
ment the corresponding study of drawing, particularly
of mechanical drawing.
Manual training for girls, besides the work in sewing
and cutting, allows for a certain number of lessons,
suggestive talks, ar'^'"^Yercises in which the teacher
will aini> not to gi^e a regular course in domestic
econoniy, but to inspire the girls with a love of order by
means of numerous practical examples, to make them
acquire the serious qualities of the housewife, and to
put them on their guard against frivolous or dangerous
tendencies. (oou*>
<^
n. Intellectual Education
1. PURPOSE
It is easy to characterize the type of intellectual edu-
cation which is given by the primary school. It gives
but a limited amount of learning, but this learning is
so chosen that not only does it provide the child with
all the practical knowledge he will need through life,
but it acts upon his faculties, forms, cultivates, and
broadens his mind, and constitutes a real education.
The ideal of the primary school is not to teach much,
but to teach well. The child leaves it knowing little,
but he knows that little well; the instruction he has
received is limited, but not superficial. It is not a
half-instruction, and he who possesses it is not a half-
scholar; for what makes instruction complete or in-
complete is not the greater or less extent of the domain
it cultivates, but rather the manner of cultivating it.
On account of the age of the pupils and their probable
future careers, primary education has neither the time
20 FRENCH EDUCATIONAL IDEALS OF TODAY
nor the means to cover a cycle of studies equal to that
of secondary education. What it can do for its pupils
is to make their studies profit them in the same way,
and in a humbler sphere to render them the same serv-
ices that secondary studies afford the pupils in the
lycees ; for both carry away from the public school
a sum total of knowledge adapted to their future
needs, and, what is more important still, good habits
of mind, an open, wide-awake intelligence, with clear
ideas, good judgment, and reflective power, together
with order and accuracy in thought and language.
"The object of primary teaching," as has very justly
been said,^ "is not to include all it is possible to know
about the various subjects of instruction, but to teach
well in each one of them that of which a person may
not be ignorant."
2. METHOD
The object being thus defined, the method to be
used necessarily follows. It cannot consist either in a
series of mechanical processes or in mere apprentice-
ship in the elements of communication, reading, writing,
and arithmetic ; nor yet in a dull succession of lessons
which set before the pupils different chapters in a
course of study.
The only method that befits primary instruction
is the one which makes teacher and pupils participate
in turn, and which encourages a continual interchange
of ideas in forms that are varied, flexible, and ingen-
iously graded. The teacher should always start with
^ Gbeard, Rapport aur la tituation de Censeignement primaire de la Seine,
1875.
JULES FERRY 21
what the children know, and then, proceeding from the
known to the unknown, from the easy to the diflScult,
should lead them by a logical succession of oral ques-
tions or written exercises to discover the consequences
of a principle, the applications of a rule, or, inversely,
the principles and the rules which they have already
unconsciously applied.
In all his instruction the teacher should begin by
making use of material objects, should have the chil-
dren see and handle them, and should bring the children
face to face with concrete realities. Then, little by
little, he trains them to segregate the abstract idea, to
compare, to generalize, and to reason without the help
of material examples.
It is, therefore, by constant appeal to the attention,
the judgment, and the intellectual spontaneity of the
pupil that primary teaching can maintain itself. Pri-
mary teaching is essentially intuitive and practical;
intuitive, that is to say, it depends first of all on natural
good sense and on that innate power possessed by the
human mind to grasp at first glance and without
demonstration, not all truths, to be sure, but the
simplest and most fundamental truths. Primary
education is practical, in that it never loses sight of
the fact that the pupils of the primary school have no
time to lose in idle discussions, in learned theories, or
in scholastic curiosities, and that five or six years in
school are not too much to provide them with the little
store of ideas which they absolutely need and to put
them in a position to preserve and enlarge it in after
life.
It is upon these conditions that primary instruction
22 FRENCH EDUCATIONAL IDEALS OF TODAY
can undertake the education and cultivation of the
mind. Nature alone, so to speak, guides it; it de-
velops simultaneously the varied faculties of the in-
telligence by the only means at its disposal — in other
words, by training them in a simple, spontaneous, al-
most instinctive way. It develops the judgment by
leading the child to judge, the spirit of observation by
making him observe, the reason by helping him to
reason for himself and without dependence upon
logical rules.
This confidence in the natural forces of the mind
and this absence of all pretension to science properly
speaking befits all rudimentary instruction; but it is
especially applicable to the primary school, which
must influence the child population as a whole rather
than a few children taken individually. Teaching
here is necessarily collective and based upon a class
system. The teacher cannot devote himself to a few ;
he is responsible for all. It is by the results obtained
in his whole class, and not by the attainment of the
best, that his pedagogical work should be judged.
Whatever be the intellectual inequalities of his pupils,
there is a minimum of knowledge and attainment that
the primary school must impart, with very rare ex-
ceptions, to all its pupils alike. Some will easily rise
above this level, but even so, if it is not attained by
the rest of the class, the teacher has not appreciated
his task, or at any rate he has not entirely accom-
plished it.
JULES FERRY 23
III. Moral Education
1. PURPOSE
Moral instruction differs fundamentally in aim and
character from the other two divisions of the program.
Aim and essential characteristics of this instruction.
Moral instruction is intended to complete and bind
together, to elevate and to ennoble all the other in-
struction in the school. While each of the other
branches tends to develop a special order of aptitudes
or of useful knowledge, this study tends to develop
the man himself — that is to say, his heart, his in-
telligence, his conscience. Hence moral instruction
moves in an altogether different sphere from the other
subjects. Its force depends far less upon the pre-
cision and the logical relation of the truths taught
than upon the intensity of feeling, the vividness of im-
pression, and the contagious ardor of conviction en-
gendered.
The aim of this education is not to make children
know, but to make them will; it arouses rather than
demonstrates. Compelled to act upon the emotional
nature, it proceeds more from feeling than from reason-
ing. It does not attempt to analyze all the reasons
for a moral act. It seeks first of all to produce a moral
act, to cause it to recur, to make it habitual so that
it shall dominate life. In the primary school it is not
a science, it is an art — the art of inclining the free
will toward the good.
The rSle of the teacher. In respect to this subject
as to the other branches of education, the teacher is
24 FRENCH EDUCATIONAL IDEALS OF TODAY
regarded as the representative of society. It is of the
highest importance to a democratic secular society
that all its members should be initiated early, and by
lessons which cannot be effaced, into a feeling of their
dignity, and into a feeling not less deep of their duty
and of their personal responsibility. To attain this
end the teacher is not to proceed as if he were ad-
dressing children destitute of all previous knowledge
of good and evil; he should remember that the great
majority of them have received or are receiving a
religious instruction which familiarizes them with the
idea of a God of the universe and a Father of men,
with the traditions, the beliefs, the practices of a wor-
ship, either Christian or Jewish; that they have al-
ready received the fundamental ideas of a morality,
eternal and universal. These notions, however, are
still in a state of the nascent and fragile germ; they
have not yet profoundly penetrated the child's exist-
ence ; they are fleeting, unstable, and confused, rather
glimpsed than possessed, confided to the memory more
than to the conscience, which as yet is scarcely de-
veloped. These ideas are still wdth them in the germ.
They await ripening and developing by appropriate
culture, and this culture remains for the teacher to
give.
His mission is therefore limited. He is to strengthen,
to root into the minds of his pupils, for all their lives,
through daily practice those essential notions of a
morality common to all civilized men. He can do
this without making personal reference to any of the
religious beliefs with which his pupils associate and
blend the general principles of morals.
JULES FERRY 25
He takes the children as they come to him with their
ideas and their language, with the beliefs which they
have derived from their parents, and his only care is
to teach them to draw from these that which is most
precious from the social standpoint ; namely, the pre-
cepts of a high morality.
Peculiar purpose and limits of this teaching. The
moral teaching of the school is, then, distinguished
from religious instruction without running counter to
it. The teacher is neither a priest nor the father of a
family; he joins his efforts to theirs to make each
child an honest man. He should insist upon the duties
which bring men together, and not upon the dogmas
which separate them. All theological and philo-
sophical discussion is manifestly forbidden him by
the very character of his functions, by the age of his
pupils, and by the confidence of their families and of
the State. He is to concentrate all his efforts upon
a problem of another nature, but one which is not less
arduous, for the very reason that it is exclusively
practical. He should aim to make all the children
serve an effective apprenticeship to a moral life.
Later in life they will perhaps become separated
by dogmatic opinion, but they will be in accord in
having the aim of life as high as possible; in having
the same horror for what is base and vile; the same
delicacy in the appreciation of duty; in aspiring to
moral perfection, whatever effort it may cost; in
feeling united in that fealty to the good, the beautiful,
and the true, which is also a form, and not the least
pure, of the religious sentiment.
26 FRENCH EDUCATIONAL IDEALS OF TODAY
2. METHOD
By his character, his conduct, his example, the
teacher should be the most persuasive of examples.
In moral instruction what does not come from the
heart does not reach the heart. A teacher who recites
precepts, who speaks of duty without convictions,
without warmth, does much worse than waste his
efforts. He is altogether wrong. A course of morals
which is regular, but cold, commonplace, dry, does
not teach morals, because it does not develop a love
for the subject. The simplest recital in which the
child can catch an accent of gravity, a single sincere
word, is worth more than a long succession of me-
chanical lessons.
On the other hand, it is hardly necessary to say, the
teacher should carefully avoid any reflection either by
language or expression upon the religious beliefs of the
children confided to his care, anything that might
betray on his part any lack of respect or of regard for
the opinions of others.
The only obligation imposed upon the teacher, and
this is compatible with a respect for all convictions,
is to watch in a practical and paternal manner the
moral development of his pupils with the same solici-
tude with which he follows their progress in scholar-
ship. He should not believe himself free from re-
sponsibilities toward any of them if he has not done
as much for the education of character as for that of
the intellect. At this price alone will the teacher
have merited the title of educator, and elementary
instruction the name of liberal education.
JULES FERRY 27
MORAL EDUCATION
The Program 1
Infant section: Ages 5 to 7 years. Very simple talks mingled
with all the exercises of the class and of recreation. Simple poems
explained and learned by heart. Simple stories with a moral, re-
lated and followed by questions calculated to bring out their sense
and ascertain if the children have understood them. Simple
songs.
Special care should be given by the teacher to those children in
whom she has observed any defect in character or any vicious
tendency.
Primary section : Ages 7 to 9 years. Familiar talks. Readings
with explanations (stories, examples, precepts, parables, and fables).
Teaching through the emotions.
Practical exercises tending toward application of the moral
training in the class itself :
1. By observation of individual character (taking account of
the predispositions of the children to correct their defects or to
develop their good qualities).
2. By intelligent application of school discipline as a means of
education. (Distinguish carefully neglect of sense of duty from
simple infraction of rules; show clearly the connection between
the fault and its punishment; illustrate a scrupulous spirit of
impartiality in the government of the class; inspire a horror of
tale-bearing, dissimulation, and hypocrisy; put candor and up-
rightness above all else, and therefore never discourage frank
speaking on the children's part, or refuse to listen to their com-
plaints or their requests.)
3. By constant appeal to the feelings and moral judgment of
the child himself. (Frequently make the children judges of their
own conduct, especially by having them evaluate moral and in-
tellectual effort in themselves and in others ; allow them to speak
and act for themselves, but subsequently make them discover for
themselves their errors or their faults.)
4. By correcting vulgar notions (popular superstitions and
* Extract from the official program of the lower primary schools.
28 FRENCH EDUCATIONAL IDEALS OF TODAY
prejudices, belief in witchcraft, in ghosts, in the influence of certain
numbers, foolish fears, etc.).
5. By instruction dra^Ti from facts observed by the children
themselves. It is advisable at times to make them feel the sad
consequences of the vices they sometimes have under their eyes :
drunkenness, laziness, disorder, cruelty, brutal appetites, etc.,
while inspiring in them as much compassion for the victims of the
evil as horror of the evil itself. It is also advisable to proceed in
the same way, through concrete examples and appeals to the im-
mediate experience of the children, in order to initiate them into
the moral emotions, to develop in them, for instance, the feeling
of admiration for the order of the universe and of religious feeling
by making them contemplate some great natural scenery. It is
further advisable to stimulate their charitable impulses by calling
their attention to a misfortune to be relieved and giving them the
opportunity of performing a practical act of charity discreetly;
and to arouse in them the feeling of gratitude and sympathy by the
narration of an act of courage, by a visit to a charitable institution,
etc.
Intermediate section: Ages 9 to 11 years. Talks, reading and
interpretation, practical exercises. The same type and means of
teaching as before, save that instruction becomes somewhat more
methodical and precise. Coordination of lessons and readings so
as to omit no important point in the program below :
I. (a) The child in the family; duties toward parents and
grandparents : obedience, respect, love, gratitude.
Help the parents in their work ; relieve them in their
illness ; come to their aid in old age.
(6) Duties of brothers and sisters : Love one another ;
protection of the younger children by the older;
responsibilitj^ for setting a good example,
(c) Duties toward servants : Treat them politely and with
kindness.
{d) Duties of the child at school: Regular attendance,
obedience, industry, civility. Duties toward the
teacher ; duties toward comrades,
(e) The fatherland : France, her greatness and her mis-
JULES FERRY 29
fortune. Duties toward the fatherland and toward
society.
n. (a) Duties toward oneself: Care of the body, cleanliness,
sobriety, and temperance. Dangers of alcoholism:
weakening of the intelligence and of the will; ruin
of the health. Gymnastics.
(6) Material goods: Economy, avoidance of debt, evil
effects of the passion for gambling; duty to avoid
immoderate desire for money and gain ; prodigality ;
avarice. Work (economy of time; obligation of all
men to work ; nobility of manual labor),
(c) The soul : Veracity and sincerity ; never lie. Personal
dignity, self-respect. Modesty; recognition of one's
own faults. Evils of pride, vanity, coquetry, frivolity.
Shame of ignorance and sloth. Courage in danger and
misfortune ; patience, spirit of initiative. Dangers of
rage.
{d) Treat animals with gentleness. Do not let them suffer
uselessly. The Grammont law ; societies for the pro-
tection of animals,
(e) Duties toward others : Justice and charity ; the Golden
Rule. Never injure the life, person, property, or
reputation of another. Kindness, brotherhood.
Tolerance, respect for the beliefs of others. Little
by little alcoholism entails the violation of all duties
toward others (laziness, violence, etc.).
(Note. In this whole course the teacher should assume the
existence of conscience, of the moral law, and of moral obligation ;
he should appeal to the feeling and idea of responsibility. He
does not undertake to demonstrate any of these by theoretical
exposition.)
in. Duties toward God : The teacher is not required to give
a course ex professo on the nature and attributes of God. The
instruction which he should give to all without distinction is limited
to two points :
First, he teaches his pupils not to speak the name of God thought-
lessly. He clearly associates in their minds a feeling of respect
30 FRENCH EDUCATIONAL IDEALS OF TODAY
and veneration for the First Cause and the Perfect Being ; and he
accustoms each one to surround the idea of God with the same re-
spect even when it is presented to him in a form different from that
of his own rehgion.
Then, and without paj^ng attention to the ordinances peculiar
to the different religious beliefs, the teacher endeavors to make the
child understand and feel that the first homage he owes the Divinity
is obedience to the laws of God revealed to him by his conscience
and his reason.
Higher section: Ages 11 to 13 years. Talks, readings, practical
exercises as in the two preceding sections. This course comprises,
besides a regular series of lessons whose number and order may
vary, elementary instruction in ethics in general and more es-
pecially of one's duty toward society, according to the program
below :
I. The family : Duties of parents and of children ; reciprocal
duties of masters and servants ; the family spirit.
n. Society : Necessity and benefits of society. Justice, the
condition of all society. Solidarity and human brotherhood. Al-
coholism destroys these sentiments little by little by destroying
the mainspring of will and of personal responsibility.
Applications and development of the idea of justice: respect
for human life and liberty ; respect for property ; respect for the
pledged word; respect for the honor and reputation of others.
Probity, equity, loyalty, delicacy. Respect for the opinions and
beliefs of others. ^
Applications and development of the idea of love or brother-
hood. Its varying degrees; duties of benevolence, gratitude,
tolerance, mercy, etc. Self-sacrifice, the highest form of love;
show that it can find a place in everyday life.
in. The fatherland: What a man owes his country: obedi-
ence to law, military service, discipline, devotion, fidelity to the
flag. Taxes (condemnation of fraud toward the State). The
ballot : a moral obligation, wliich should be free, conscientious,
disinterested, enlightened. Rights wliich correspond to these
duties : personal freedom, liberty of conscience, freedom of con-
tract and the right to work, right to organize. Guarantee of the
JULES FERRY 31
security of life and property to all. National sovereignty. Ex-
planation of the motto of the Republic : Liberty, Equality, Fra-
ternity.
Under each of these heads in the course in social ethics, the
teacher should explain clearly, without entering into metaphysical
discussions :
1. The difference between duty and self-interest even when the
two seem to be identified — that is to say, the imperative and dis-
interested nature of duty.
2. The distinction between the written and the moral law;
the one fixes a minimum number of prescriptions which society
imposes under penalty on all its members ; the other imposes on
each one in the secret of his conscience a duty which no one con-
strains him to fulfill, but in which he cannot fail without feeling a
sense of wrong toward himself and toward God.
OCTAVE GREARD
Octave Gr^ard (1828-1904), writer and administrator. After
reorganizing the system of primary instruction of the city of Paris,
he was called by Jules Ferry to one of the highest educational
positions in France, that of vice-rector of the University of Paris,
a position which he filled with distinction for twenty-three years.
As chairman of almost all the commissions appointed by the
Ministry, he exerted an uninterrupted influence over teaching in
all its stages and had a dominant share in all the educational work
of the Third Republic. Jules Ferry expressed the general senti-
ment of French educators when he called Greard "the first school-
master of France."
NEW METHODS IN THE PARIS PRIMARY
SCHOOLS '
The time is past when reading, writing, and "counter
and pen reckoning," to use the traditional expression,
together with the catechism, constituted the whole
program of primary instruction. When the life of
the city or country workman was embraced within
a very limited circle of needs, to decipher a few words
of print or manuscript was a distinction, to sign one's
name a mark of superiority. If one casts a glance
over the signatures in the marriage records and the
contracts which are cited today as evidence of the
diffusion of instruction before 1789, one will easily
gather from the crude letters found therein how rare
were the occasions for holding a pen among those
who could use it so indifferently. Today this ele-
mentary knowledge is only the tool knowledge, as it
began to be called by the end of the eighteenth cen-
tury — that is to say, knowledge to be used in acquir-
ing other knowledge. A new social organization
* Extract from Education et enseignement : enseignement primaire.
OCTAVE GREARD SS
has created new necessities in general education. It
would be rash, however, to forget that the purpose
of primary instruction is not to include all that it is
possible to know about the diverse subjects it touches,
but rather to teach well in each one of them those
facts of which a person cannot afford to be ignorant.
This comprehension, which answers to the nature
of things, is all the more necessary since elementary
knowledge is a means as well as an end. It would
do but half the good it ought to accomplish if it did
not primarily serve to form and develop in the child
good sense apd the moral sense.
Hence, the method is almost more important in
primary instruction than the teaching itself. In his
great project for language reform, Fenelon, setting
himself over against the scholars, did not wish too
elaborate a grammar. "It seems to me," he wrote,
"that it is necessary to confine ourselves to a short
and simple method." Short and simple, such in
our eyes is the double character of the method par-
ticularly suited to primary instruction. Short, not
dull; education needs subjects in abundance in order
to nourish the mind, but it is an abundance well chosen,
which alone is nourishing. Likewise facility, as Fene-
lon would have us understand it, excludes any idea
of diffusion or approximation, for nothing repels the
spirit of the child more than lack of precision. More-
over, Fenelon himself defines the simple method
which he recommends. "The great point," he says,
"is to bring a person to the study of things at the
earliest possible moment."
We must reject all exercises that turn education
34 FRENCH EDUCATIONAL IDEALS OF TODAY
aside from its proper course under pretext of raising
the standard : models of complicated handwriting,
inordinately long lessons, series of written analyses
and conjugations, ill-digested definitions. In grammar
we must proceed from example to rule, ignoring the
subtleties of grammatical scholasticism; we must
make arithmetical exercises practical once more;
we must teach geography only by the use of maps
and enliven topographical details of places by describ-
ing the natural or industrial products peculiar to them ;
in history we must emphasize only the essential features
of the development of French nationality, seeking
this less in a succession of deeds of war than in the
methodical development of institutions and in the
progress of social ideas ; in a word, we must make of
France what Pascal called humanity, a great being
which exists forever. In this way we can give even
the child an idea of the fatherland, of the duties it
imposes, and the sacrifices it exacts ; in this way, too,
we can hope to reach the innermost recesses of his
mind and leave there, to be fixed by the application
that he can make of it, the essential knowledge on
which all education rests.
Under these conditions, the direction of a class offers
diflBculties, as we are well aware. Serious and clean-
cut explanations, clear definitions, striking examples,
which are the secret and the strength of such teach-
ing, are not found without effort and without prep-
aration. Happy improvisations are in reality only
the fruit of very attentive previous study and of that
absolute mastery of one's subject from which the
striking expression gushes out as from a spring. The
OCTAVE GREARD 35
spring always gathers its waters before pouring them
forth, and it is this preparatory work which constitutes
the worth of the lessons, and at the same time pro-
vides the necessary interest and charm.
However, the greatest benefit of this short and
simple method is that it functions toward the edu-
cation of the faculties themselves.
Pere Girard takes up arms against what he calls
"word-machines, writing-machines, and reciting-ma-
chines" which the teacher exhibits as Vaucanson ex-
hibited his automata. For the grammar of words
he wished to substitute the grammar of ideas, thereby
compelling the child to formulate the rules of syntax,
to reason about the terms he uses and the forms he
applies. Study of language was for him only an instru-
ment by the aid of which, while teaching the child
what it is indispensable to know, he applied himself
to train his judgment. Pestalozzi established his
pedagogical doctrine on another foundation, on a
basis of practical arithmetic. But for both alike
the end was to give the child assurance and an open,
straightforward- mind, while inculcating in him a
certain number of positive notions. This method,
furthermore, is applicable to all branches of instruction.
Generally speaking, the success of primary studies
is compromised by the fact that we rely too exclusively
upon the memory. Doubtless all teaching should
be aided by the memory, but to be profitable the
thing remembered must penetrate the intelligence,
which alone can preserve a durable imprint of it.
It would be almost better for the child to forget what
he has not understood. Aside from the fact that
36 FRENCH EDUCATIONAL IDEALS OF TODAY
anything in the memory that is not fully comprehended
is a useless weight on the mind, does it not often become
the starting point of the most disastrous errors ? How
many popular prejudices, how many dangerous the-
ories, are merely ideas that have been badly digested !
The other faculties of the child are equally important.
His imagination and feelings are no less spontaneous
than his memory; and if his reasoning power is still
weak, with what confidence he accepts the hand that
knows how to guide him while treating him kindly !
The best teacher is the one who knows how to put
this activity at work. The child once on the road,
it suffices to stimulate him gently, to bring him back
if he goes astray, always leaving him as far as possible
the trouble and the satisfaction of discovering what
he is expected to find. Let him accustom himself
to justify every statement he advances, to express
himself freely in his own language; let him even
expose himself to an error and make him correct it.
showing him wherein he has reasoned badly. It will
be the most profitable of lessons. When he has re-
ceived this kind of training from one end of his studies
to the other, one can be sure of having formed a good
mind, capable of methodical and productive appli-
cation in any field of endeavor.
Indispensable to the education of the judgment,
this active method is no less useful in the education
of the moral sense. The child is generally born with
right instincts ; there remains only for us to strengthen
and develop them. To be sure, this is partly an affair
of discipline, of exact, loyal, enlightened discipline,
which keeps the conscience constantly on the alert
OCTAVE GRfiARD 37
and exercises the will, but the choice of material in
teaching will also have a share in this work if one
knows how to utilize the available resources.
Indeed, there is no study which does not lend itself
to the cultivation of the feelings. It is so easy not
to give pupils any spelling exercise which does not
contain the development of a sound ideal. Pere
Girard furnishes us an example drawn from his per-
sonal experience: "I never had my pupils conjugate
verbs separately," he says, "... but always in
sentences, since this is much more agreeable and useful
for the children. I gave out the verb in the infinitive,
the tense and mode in which to conjugate it were
prescribed, and the children had to do the rest. One
day when, according to custom, I was acting as substi-
tute for one of the monitors, the idea came to me to
have the pupils judge of the moral good or evil ex-
pressed in their sentences and make them state reasons
therefor. I saw that they were all delighted at my
having opened up a new field by affording them oppor-
tunity for the play of conscience."
The same thing can be done still more profitably
in history and geography, where the study of cause
and effect plays such an important part. In arith-
metic, too, what is more simple than not to leave the
mind of the child "in the air" over a problem which
represents only a combination of figures ! What
is more simple than to base our problems on data
which may enrich the mind with an idea of economy,
or give an exact notion of one of the great departments,
industrial, commercial, or financial, of modern life !
Before or after correcting the exercise time may well
38 FRENCH EDUCATIONAL IDEALS OF TODAY
be devoted to bringing out the moral consequences
of the illustrations used.
But foremost among the exercises adapted to this
education we must recognize those involving invention
and composition. Wisely regulated exercises of these
types (although here also there are abuses to be feared)
are of the greatest value in enabling an intelligent
teacher to take possession of the child's mind and to
direct it in turn toward all the points which can con-
tribute to develop his moral sense.
It would be dijflScult to imagine how hard it is to
obtain from pupils of school age the simplest state-
ment of fact in a personal form, or how meager is
the vocabulary they use. Not only do they lack
expression for sentiments of a delicate character,
but even in the sphere of those ideas among which
they move, they are obliged to borrow their words
from the vocabulary of slang.
Familiarity with good books gives the first oppor-
tunity to correct and purify the pupils' language.
Like the body, the mind contracts the habit of correct
bearing. During the first month at school the children
are for the most part quite neglected; at the end of
some time they themselves ask their mothers to keep
them clean (we know of more than one such instance),
and from the day that they feel this desire they are
generally won over to the ideas of discipline and work.
In like manner good language is not only the aim of
education, it becomes through the respect given itself
an agent of moral improvement.
Yet reading merely collects the elements of thought
and language. In order that these elements may be-
OCTAVE GREARD 39
come valuable to mind and heart, they must be assimi-
lated. Here the exercise of redaction comes to the
fore. The name is used to designate those exercises
by which the child is called upon to express his ideas.
They were formerly given, and in the young ladies'
boarding schools they are still given, the false and
ridiculous name of "style." Even the word "redac-
tion" appears too pretentious, and we should like
to substitute a name nearer the reality, more simple
and more exact, the name "exercise in invention and
composition." Indeed, the idea attached to the word
"redaction" is such that the exercise is taken up only
in the upper grades; and for the same reason its
subjects are sought very far away. What is the
result? If the theme concerns facts that the child
has learned, he records them on paper ; if his memory
does not furnish him anything, not knowing how to
set to work, he bestirs himself to put a few banal
phrases together as best he can. Ideas do not come
of themselves to the child's mind ; he must be taught
to find them. Still less do they take on by themselves
the order and the form that they should assume; he
must be taught to compose. Now one can profitably
begin this modest apprenticeship very early. How-
ever young the child may be, he is capable of creating
the examples by which he is made to recognize the
nature and use of words in language; he has ready-
made simple sentences already in mind; he possesses
them unconsciously, but he possesses them none the
less; his games, the objects about him, continually
furnish the subjects of these sentences which he is
only too anxious to express. While stimulating this
40 FRENCH EDUCATIONAL IDEALS OF TODAY
natural faculty, it is necessary to see that he expresses
himself correctly.
K this very elementary exercise is cleverly combined
with reading, if the attention of the pupil as he goes
along is carefully called to the things least familiar
to him and to the words which serve to represent
them, little by little the resources of his vocabulary
will increase, together with those of his mind, and
from the invention of the simple clause he will easily
pass to the invention of the complex clause, and
thence to the joining of two clauses. All that will
make up one sentence at the most. From this stage
to composition properly so called is assiu'edly a great
advance. But from now on there will no longer be
any fundamental diflSculty; for in this as yet purely
oral work the child will have begun to gain an idea
of the elements of thought and of the forms which
give expression to thought.
As he grows older, he will reach the stage of written
development. The first idea will be furnished by the
teacher in a few sentences, in the beginning four or
five at most; even the framework will be prepared.
The work of the child will consist in filling it out by
indicating the causes, the effects, and the accessory
circumstances of time, place, etc. This sort of theme
can once in a while serve as text for the spelling lesson.
In whatever fashion the exercise is given, it should
be corrected on the blackboard in class. Since each
pupil will bring his own more or less happy suggestion,
the teacher will have the opportunity of training the
judgment of all by comparing their contributions.
The child will thus learn to recognize the sources of
OCTAVE GREARD 41
the different ideas, to make a choice among them, and
to link them together. He will understand the work
performed by his mind, for his reason will suggest
to him the supplementary development and will make
him appreciate the fitness and unity of this develop-
ment.
He will thus be ready to attack real subjects of
composition in which he will have to depend entirely
upon himself. If these subjects are borrowed ex-
clusively from the order of things to which his reading
or his reflection has introduced him, he will attack
them without astonishment and he will feel at ease
with them. Through being accustomed to analyze
the elements of his thought in order to discover the
exact word and the proper form in which to express
it, he will be able to bring method, fluency, and clear-
ness into his composition.
Such at least is the end which one should gradually
strive to attain. I must repeat, there can be no ques-
tion of training the pupils to write, in the literary sense
of the word. The capital of the child, however rich
we succeed in making it, is after all too limited to
be drawn upon repeatedly. We aim only properly
to direct his mental activity and thus to teach him
to express accurate ideas in correct form. Teaching
a child to read clearly in his reason and in his heart
may spare him many errors of conduct. At least
it renders more difficult the encroachment of false
ideas and evil passions. No longer understood as
"literary themes" superficially plastered on the studies
of the final years (as so often happens), but as exer-
cises aiming even from the first grade to fortify the
42 FRENCH EDUCATIONAL IDEALS OF TODAY
solid qualities of the mind, these simple attempts at
invention and composition will help to give the child
a firm and exact knowledge of himself, of what he
feels, of what he thinks, of his inclinations and duties.
Under such conditions they can and will be one of the
surest and most powerful instruments in education.
Many things learned on the schoolroom benches
are more or less quickly effaced from the memory.
So it is at all stages in the studies of youth. But what
remains of studies well done, what should remain of
a primary education in which the moral culture that
forms the character is united with the intellectual
culture that forms the mind, this residuum is a sound
and enlightened judgment.
FfiLIX PECAUT
F^lix P^caut (1828-1898), in his youth a Protestant minister,
became one of the founders of the religious movement known as
"liberal Protestantism." In 1880 he was chosen by Jules Ferry
to organize the higher primary normal school for women at Fontenay-
aux-Roses, which he directed until just before his death. For
fifteen years he furnished the inspiration for a type of moral edu-
cation whose originality consisted in uniting deep religious feeling
with the complete independence of mind characteristic of the lay
spirit. It is at Fontenay, the "Port-Royal of the Third Republic,"
that the teachers and principals of normal schools for women are
trained. Without question Pecaut has had the most far-reaching
influence over the primary education of women in contemporary
France.
AN EXPERIMENT IN MORAL TEACHING AT
FONTENAY-AUX-ROSES ^
You all know what an effort we have been making in
France for the past quarter of a century to organize
a system of national education after the type outlined
by the men of the French Revolution. The name of
Jules Ferry suffices to personify for you this great
political movement. The public school that has be-
come a lay school — lay in program, lay in personnel,
lay in the spirit that animates it — such is the end that
the laws of the Third Republic have permitted us to
attain after long years of violent struggle. But what
is the lay school ? And what is the basis of the principle
of the lay spirit itself? I do not know whether it is
perfectly comprehended abroad or if you yourselves,
observant though you are of events in France, have
* Extract from a lecture delivered at the University of Geneva, April,
1900, by Ferdinand Buisson.
43
44 FRENCH EDUCATIONAL IDEALS OF TODAY
not been inclined to accept interpretations that made
the question a little too simple. Some good people,
confining themselves to a superficial view of the ques-
tion, have gone so far as to see in this revolution in our
schools either a reaction against Catholicism, or else
a triumph of positivism. Others, who do not take
pains to examine critically the theories that suit their
prejudices, made a discovery which they have divulged
with great gusto, claiming that beneath these school
politics there was a clever conspiracy to Protestantize
France.
Quite recently M. Georges Goyau, the lieutenant of
M. Brunetiere, published an article in the Revue des
Deux Mondes which he subsequently expanded into a
volume filled with facts and documents, entitled "The
School of Today," a critical study in which a touch
of bitterness should not make us misjudge a great deal
of insight. He attributes to Protestantism, and par-
ticularly to its radical element, a secret but persistent
control in the new lay school.
This is not the place to examine these diverse con-
tentions. I should like, however, to call your attention
to a single chapter in our educational history during the
past twenty years, because this chapter will show you
the educational applications of the doctrines which I
have tried to expound. For my part, I am not primarily
interested in their specific Protestant aspects. But
then, you must judge for yourselves.
Of all the tasks that Republican France was under-
taking, so far as the schools were concerned, the newest,
avowedly the most delicate, and the one where nothing
had been done, was the education of girls. Under
FELIX PfiCAUT 45
the leadership of Paul Bert and Jules Ferry, Parlia-
ment had indeed taken a radical step. It had decreed
the establishment of a normal school for women teachers
in each department, that is to say of a school for the
training of lay teachers destined to replace the sisters
in the primary schools for girls. Thanks to the splendid
impulse which, on the very morrow of our disasters,
united for the time being all parties in the thought
of rehabilitating the nation, the funds were found
which were necessary for creating both these normal
schools and the thousands of primary schools which we
lacked.
But something else was wanting which it was less
easy to create. Where should we find a staff of lay-
men capable of training some thousands of future
teachers ? For divers reasons there could be no ques-
tion of asking our system of higher education, as it
was then constituted, to assume the burden. Right
or wrong, the Republic was determined to have this
preparation of women teachers conducted by women.
It was therefore necessary to place at the head of each
one of these eighty normal schools for girls a principal
and three or four teachers capable of conducting the
professional education of forty, fifty, sixty normal
students, most of them young peasant girls, from six-
teen to twenty years of age, who would leave at the
end of three years, to act as lay teachers in villages
which had never seen a school mistress and did not
suspect that there were any except the good sisters.
To attempt such a work and in such a brief time,
under the fire of so much ill-will and in the midst of
so many difficulties; to improvise a staff of women
46 FRENCH EDUCATIONAL IDEALS OF TODAY
capable of such an effort, in a country where the edu-
cation of women had until then remained in the hands
of the Church, was not that attempting the impossible ?
Jules Ferry dared it, and it is perhaps the greatest
act of faith in the virility of the French democracy
that can be cited on the part of a statesman of our
day.
He conceived the idea of founding a higher normal
school, a sort of poedagogium, to which there should
be admitted, after competitive examination, young
women learned enough to be able in a year or two to
become good teachers, resolute enough to form the
first phalanx in this new army, courageous enough to
go out into the different departments and face every
kind of prejudice and every kind of calumny.
M. Ferry confided the organization of this central
school, from which the new spirit in the education of
girls was to radiate, to a man who had no oflScial quali-
fication for the position, a publicist known chiefly in
the religious and philosophical world. For a short
time in his youth he had filled a pastorate in Beam,
but had given it up in 1859 on the publication of his
first work, Christ and the Conscience, a book which had
caused a sensation in the Protestant world.
The author, manifestly of unusual mind and soul,
was in spite of his youth esteemed, loved, and respected
by all. People read with amazement the conclusions
of this book, which preceded by several years Renan's
Life of Jesus, and surpassed in certain respects Renan's
audacity. Many of those who hear me know M.
Pecaut and remember the place he occupied among
the extreme radicals of Protestant theologians.
FfiLIX PfiCAUT • 47
To this man, noted for his very advanced opinions,
M. Ferry thought proper to confide the training of
the higher teaching staff for the education of girls.
He commissioned Pecaut to organize the school at
Fontenay-aux-Roses. You doubtless can picture to
yourselves the difficulty, the complexity, of the task.
These girls, the majority of them coming from lower-
class families, almost all of them Catholics, provided
only with a good elementary education, were to be
transformed- into teachers of teachers. Not only must
they be well-informed persons, acquainted with the
newest and best methods of teaching, possessing open
and cultivated minds, but above all they must be
directors, sources of inspiration, human beings capable
of enlightening and stimulating other human beings.
"It would be," he had written, " a poor sort of reason
and a very poor school which should pretend to teach
only what can be seen, handled, or demonstrated
mathematically, without concerning itself with all the
truth, the nobleness, the aspirations, the dignity, that
humanity has created through the continual effort of
its sages, its seers, and its legislators — in short, with
the very ideal in the depth of the human soul. What-
ever may be said of all this, it is nature ; it is human.
It belongs to reason, and when appropriating it freely,
reason only enriches herself by her rightful heritage.
So true is this that our schoolmasters, in affecting for
instance to neglect the lessons of Epictetus, of Marcus
Aurelius, of Socrates, or of Jesus, as a teaching now
superannuated, would fail to recognize their true
48 FRENCH EDUCATIONAL IDEALS OF TODAY
spiritual ancestors and the ideal by which the world
and they themselves are living today."
How much truer and more important still must
these observations have appeared to him when the
education of women was in question. In this domain
more than in all others M. Pecaut felt that the nerve
and sinew of the new education lay in the depth and
strength of the personal conviction animating the
teacher. He did not hesitate to think that the first
guarantee of serious development that could be given
to lay instruction in the Republic was to establish
steadfastly in each one of these women the inner au-
thority, or, to express it better, the sovereignty of
reason and of conscience. For him the success of the
revolution attempted by our country depended upon
the answers to these questions : Will it be possible
to give the educators of the French lay school **a re-
ligious soul" and at the same time a "mind freed from
the blind regard for tradition".'^ Will the principal
of the Republican normal school be able to "seek out
and cultivate that which is the foundation of feminine
nature and its dignity .^^ Can she by her example
teach the young teachers of the people to consider
themselves engaged in a divine work, in which they
must be co-laborers with God himself, to the end that
the woman of conscience and of reason, capable of
truth and justice no less than of love, may rise from
the depths of weakness and coarse instinct, by the aid
of the elements of knowledge .^^ "
It was given to M. Pecaut to direct for more than
fifteen years the school he had founded. I should
like to make you realize how he accomplished the task
FELIX PECAUT 49
just outlined, but here neither definitions nor formulas
nor official reports can enlighten you. You would
have to enter into the eager everyday life of Fontenay.
At the risk, or rather with the certitude, of being ex-
tremely superficial and of giving but fragmentary
views of this connected whole, I ask your permission
to use the method of illustration, and cite a few random
traits, leaving you the task of piecing them together.
Ill
The school at Fontenay had existed barely a few
months when it received the visit of a foreigner, a
good judge in such matters, Matthew Arnold. This
great writer, who at the same time inherited his father's
pedagogical genius, stopped a few days at Fontenay
during a protracted tour of Europe, in the course of
which he was making a first-hand study of the principal
educational establishments. He says in his report : "I
doubt whether I saw on the continent as good a school,
certainly I saw none so interesting, as the training
school at Fontenay-aux-Roses." After giving a few
details about the house, the family spirit, and the
personnel, he adds : ** The soul of the place is M.
Pecaut, a man of about sixty, whom I had already
met in France twenty years ago. When I hear it
said that all that the French Republican government
is doing for education is due to hatred for religion,
I think of Fontenay and of M. Pecaut. I think of
the cordial support given him by the Minister of Public
Instruction. When I think of all that, I render jus-
tice to the Republican government."
Here the eminent critic relates what he saw of the
50 FRENCH EDUCATIONAL IDEALS OF TODAY
first halting steps of the moral teaching given by lay-
men in our primary schools. He recognizes better
than anybody else what it lacks and explains this in-
sufficiency, precisely "because such an instruction is
not improvised." So he describes with very par-
ticular interest what is done at Fontenay :
The young women at Fontenay are in general Catholics. They
go to church on Sundays, but each morning they receive from M.
Pecaut, in an informal talk, a lesson that may be called a lesson
in pedagogy, but which is really a special form of moral and re-
ligious education. M. Pecaut takes up with his class selected
passages from great pedagogical writers, Locke, Rousseau, Pesta-
lozzi. The day that I was at the lecture, the author under con-
sideration was Bishop Dupanloup, whose book Education raises
what are called burning questions on every page. They were
treated in a manner deeply moral and perfectly religious, and yet
neither Catholic nor Protestant. Not only did M. Pecaut treat
them so himself, but he had trained his pupils so to treat them also.
One could judge of this by their answers, by their participation
in the oral discussion, and by their written notes.
If M. Pecaut could be multiplied and placed in every normal
school in France, the foundation of a moral instruction, not futile
as at present? ;^*^, seriously and religiously effective, would be made
possible in the French schools. At present it is at Fontenay only
that I found instruction of this kind. What is accomplished there
is all of the highest value, but this particular moral instruction is
unique.
I was anxious to quote you the judgment of this
keen visitor. You would appreciate the morning
lectures to which Matthew Arnold makes allusion
far better, however, if you should gather the testimony
either of the professors and tutors or of the numerous
generations of young women who have felt M. Pecaut's
influence. According to a former student, "it was, so
FfiUX PECAUT 51
to speak, the religious service which opened our day."
Little by little there grew up a custom of opening or
closing the assembly with one of the beautiful choruses
that first M. Bourgalit-Ducoudray and later Maurice
Bouchor selected for Fontenay and the lay schools.
IV
Not long ago an old notebook was found in which
M. Pecaut had jotted down the synopses of these talks.
Will you allow me to read you a few lines? In spite
of their brevity, you will understand his method :
November 9, 1886. Read Madame de Maintenon's letter on the
sensible girl. Charming picture. The sensible girl is gay; she
makes herself everything to everybody ; she goes to sleep satisfied
with her day. This last trait Port-Royal would have condemned.
Madame de Maintenon is concerned with what her young lady
will do more than with what she will be. The moral sentiment is
not sufficiently profound.
November 10. On Madame de Maintenon. The term "good
sense" is the characteristic feature of her lessons. "Be sensible and
you will be amiable," she loves to say. Good tfense for her was the
wisdom that accommodates itself to persons and tc igs. There
are, nevertheless, greater virtues : courage of soul ; indignation
in the face of evil. Madame de Maintenon teaches us to be on our
guard against excitement and sentimentality. That is very well.
But let not our good sense inhibit the transports of our soul. Can
we love Madame de Maintenon, sensible as she is? Montesquieu
has said of her : " Louis XIV had a soul that was greater than his
mind. Madame de Maintenon worked to lower it until she had
brought it down to his level." This judgment is severe. Is it too
severe ?
November 23. On the reflections our readings should inspire.
Read in the Temps the letters on the last elections. When you see
that the peasants of the Ardeche, in their joy at the defeat of the
republican candidates, sacrificed a goat to celebrate the funeral
52 FRENCH EDUCATIONAL IDEALS OF TODAY
rites of the Republic, you will better understand the duties of our
teachers.
December 17. Essay on Misery by the Comte d'HaussonvUle.
Poverty, a great evil, to which we must not resign ourselves.
Society's preventive measures (pension funds, mutual benefit
societies) are insufficient. Charity is necessary. Let us make a
place for it in our school life. Ideas inspired by science are being
diffused ; these ideas tend to show in the poverty-stricken a dead
weight which hinders the advance of society. M. d'Haussonville
seems struck by the force of these ideas and bears a grudge against
science. As for us, let us try to harmonize our ideas of human
liberty with the physical necessities that science establishes.
December 21. On an address by M. Laffite, leader of the pas-
itwistSy at Gerson Hall. It was a popular audience of about two
hundred persons, who pencil in hand were trying to take notes.
M. Pierre Laffite, the disciple and follower of Auguste Comte, ex-
pounded the general physical and social laws on which education
should rest. The address was not conspicuous for its clearness.
Nevertheless, the audience listened to him with reverential attention.
Positivism brings to those who adopt it a sort of revelation of science,
rules of conduct, and peace of mind. Whether that shocks us or
not, we must grow accustomed to the thought that thousands of
men live by another spiritual bread than we.
The most striking thing about these informal talks
is that nothing savors of the didactic or the pedantic.
M. Pecaut brings his hearers face to face with ques-
tions affecting social, national, and family life, but
especially those affecting moral life. He takes for
his theme the event of the day, the elections, Mgr.
Freppel's stirring speech in Parliament on Tongking,
the publication of a libelous attack on France by a
German. "What is bitter is a tonic," he writes, "and
it will be good for us to read these charges." He often
touches upon domestic and household life, or on middle-
class prejudices.
FELIX PECAUT 53
At other times he discusses the most lofty subjects
in philosophy or poetry. One day he talks to them
on the death of Socrates. Socrates puts away his
wife. He compares Socrates with Saint Augustine,
who says of his mother, "We had but one life between
us." Then follow reflections on the role of woman
in Greek society. He contrasts it with the portrait
of the virtuous woman in the Bible, and in reference
to this writes in his memoranda :
Practical sense and physical energy are strongly marked traits
in the Hebrew type, traits which we should borrow. Woman is
sometimes spoken of as a visionary creature. Our women of the
people are strong and robust. They do not dream; they act.
You who wish to develop tender women should begin by making
them strong. You who wish to develop religious women should
remember that morality is the beginning of true piety. Our ideal
of woman must possess besides force reason in its broadest sense,
a reason enlightened and free, which becomes her as well as man ;
the practical sense that is perhaps more necessary for her than for
him; and affectionate kindness, kindness with the grace which
captivates, which retains and appeases; modesty, that is to say
reserve ; but the quality that should dominate the others is moral
earnestness, a serious conception of life and its actions. That is
what we would add to the Greek type.
At another time he asks them to consult their con-
sciences and find out if they have already had the
experience described in this quotation from Edgar
Quinet :
What I have loved I have found every day more lovable. Each
day justice has seemed to me more simple, liberty more beautiful,
the word more sacred, poetry more true, nature more divine, and
the divine more natural.
54 FRENCH EDUCATIONAL IDEALS OF TODAY
Was I not right in telling you that a few citations
would suffice to disclose the intensity of the moral
life of which Fontenay has been the center ? To com-
plete your enlightenment on this subject allow me to
refer you to two admirable articles by the director
of Fontenay which express his whole soul, and in which
his work appears in its luminous beauty. These are
his two last addresses, the one at the general reunion
of his former pupils in 1895, entitled the Spirit of
Fontenay y the other his farewell address, on August 6,
1896.^ But let me again resort to direct borrowing
from Pecaut himself and give you testimony at first
hand. From a few pages not destined for publication
and written on the death of M. Pecaut by one of his
former pupils, I choose one which gives in epitome
the experiences of every "Fontenaisienne" :
The three years I passed at Fontenay, and especially the last,
were the most fruitful in my life. They cast upon it a ray of joy
and gave it its force. The charm of these years doubtless consisted
in the intellectual treat afforded by the lessons of so many eminent
teachers. It lay in all the world of ideas which opened up before
us. But more than intellectual joys, what made us happy was the
moral atmosphere breathed at Fontenay, a pure and invigorating
atmosphere, in which we felt our hearts grow bigger and in which
all pettiness disappeared, leaving room only for a joyous impulse
toward the good.
However young and unenlightened we might be on arrival at
Fontenay, we soon had a strong though confused idea of a moral
grandeur before unknown, of a new moral world, as it were. At
first I was greatly astonished that the words of M. Pecaut in the
morning lectures made a more religious impression upon me than
* In Uidncation publique etlavie nationale.
FELIX PECAUT 55
did the sermons I heard and the religious services themselves, al-
though he did not mention religion.
Doubtless during the first two years I was very far from imder-
standing all he said. However, as I developed a more lively feeling
of duty, a two-fold teaching became clear, that of personal re-
sponsibility and of free and sincere seeking after truth. One of
M. Pecaut's favorite themes was "that it is permitted to no one,
either to individuals or to peoples, to give over into the hands of
another the government of self." Was it because this truth was
new to me? None made a more lively impression. It was for
me the awakening of the personal life of the conscience. Not that
from one day to the next I had broken with the past, but I under-
stood that the final word devolved upon my conscience. It was
no longer possible to lull myself with the words of another into a
false peace. It was my conscience that had to be obeyed. It was
with my conscience that I had to be reconciled. From that moment
its authority superseded all external authority. At last I saw
clearly that it is one of the gravest errors to consider absolute
obedience a virtue, or even a virtue to be proposed to those who
seek perfection in the spiritual life. To surrender one's conscience,
whatever be the pretext, seems to me today the supreme im-
morality.
Many passed through the religious crisis to which
allusion is made here. All did not come out of it in
the same fashion, but what they all learned was how
far their director was from being a director of con-
science. No word, no idea was more repugnant to
him. Never did a man intervene less between the
conscience of others and truth. "His fundamental
principle," says M. Sabatier, "was to ask every one
to be true, true to himself." But it must be added
that there was born of this intellectual sincerity an
inner freedom, a lively sentiment of responsibility,
the absolute command never to shrink from the duty
of thinking and willing for oneself. As the corre-
56 FRENCH EDUCATIONAL IDEALS OF TODAY
spondence of his pupils in their professional life attests,
it is the point to which he never ceases to return. If
they had had but one lesson to carry away from
Fontenay, it would have been this: "Never," as one
of them says, "never did M. Pecaut pronounce a judg-
ment for you. It seemed that in his presence you
felt your own conscience revealing itself to you; and
he simply said : 'Listen, seek, truth must reveal itself
to the soul that seeks it.'"
VI
Among all the characteristics that distinguish him,
the most striking is certainly this incessant appeal to
the conscience as the religious force preceding all re-
ligions and superior to them. It is this conviction
that a man can do nothi^^ more religious than to strive
to form within hims.ix an upright soul and to create
around him others of the same kind. Is it not remark-
able to see the same person unhesitatingly attach an
infinite price to the moral activity of the humblest
schoolmistress and be able at the same time so frankly
to remind her how little, how humble, how narrow
this work is and with what modesty she must confine
herself to it ?
To a directress who, in the face of serious diflSculty
in the government of her school, asked his advice, he
answered, "First, do not get discouraged." Then he
added :
In your place should I get along better than you? I do not
think so. Of a truth I should retire within myself every day,
seeking in stillness and humility and in the affection of those poor
children ("unmanageable students") new resources, more dis-
FfiLIX PECAUT 57
cerning methods of influencing all of them and a chosen few in
particular. After all, there is something human in them that we
can always evoke. Come now, confidence and hope! In the
meantime these girls compel you to be worth something more than
you would have been worth without them.
To another who, a simple teacher at the time, was
meeting many obstacles in the broad educative work
of which she had dreamed, he writes :
You say you are almost resigned to apply yourself to mere
teaching. Stop at the "almost," and do not restrict yourself by it.
Never leave off awakening in your newcomers other sentiments
than those of schoolgirls. Have not I already told you that it
would be a splendid reward for each one of us to create a few firm
consciences, a few liberal, generous souls among these girls? To
prevent settling down into forgetfulness, to prevent the torch (the
one that has given us light) from Voing out in France, at least in
the corner of the field which has beeiuassigned to us ; to have one
or two of our "Fontenaisiennes" tran.'ilijt it bright and vivid to
others, that is after all not to have lived in vain.
And in another letter :
It is surely the duty of your age to bring to the common work
the spirit of youth, that is of confidence, courage, and joy. Re-
member, what I expect of the daughters of Fontenay is that they
make up for the weaknesses of their predecessors by their good
humor and their merry activity. You owe it to us to help us re-
main young. I should pity this country if the spirit of resignation
or discouragement came to predominate among you, if the new
generation of directresses and teachers in normal schools, who look
to their predecessors for guidance, should renounce renewing itself
from within. There will be at least a few of you to ward off this
misfortune.
Such was the teaching of this new Port-Royal where
history "will mark out the figure of Felix Pecaut as
that of a lay St. Cyran, philosopher, and republican."
58 FRENCH EDUCATIONAL IDEALS OF TODAY
His work and doctrine could not be better sum-
marized than in these words of one of the men who
knew him best: "He thought with all that intensity
of reflection that was characteristic of him that morality
had a religious foundation and should have a religious
soul. ... He thought that in order to possess its
full truth, moral life needs to rest upon something
immutable. He believed in man's divine descent and
in his divine destiny. In order to do his duty well
at the post assigned him, the humblest of us needs
to know that in doing it he is in accord with the uni-
versal order and collaborates with it. Now this firm
and lively faith is religion itself. Pecaut, who had
begun by transforming the religion of his childhood,
wishing it to be exclusively moral, transfigured his
morality at the end by making it profoundly religious.
This intimate fusion of two powers which are so
violently at war in our society constituted his origi-
nality as a teacher and his inner force. He lived
sincerely and he died in peace, because he, too, was
conscious of having contributed in the measure al-
lotted him to the imiversal order."
NON-SECTARIANISM ^
There is a great deal of discussion about the sec-
tarian spirit which is supposed to have dictated the law
and the programs of lay control. People are wont to
confuse the lay spirit with the sectarian spirit, as
if the lay spirit (that is to say, the spirit of reason, the
spirit of everybody, of society as a whole, of historical
^ VHvjcaiion jmblique et la vie nationaley Introduction.
FfiLIX PfiCAUT 59
traditions of every sort, the free human or national
spirit and not that of a conservative church or school)
were not in its essential principle the very opposite
of the spirit of sectarianism or of system, and as open
to religious as to secular thought. In the face of
necessities as evident as the sun, on what basis could
the State build up a national education save upon
the basis of a lay program ? This would include only
such subjects as are dependent upon reason alone,
understood in its broadest sense, that is to say the
intelligence, the conscience, and the heart enlightened
by history. Such a program would exclude the teach-
ings of the Church or of any particular sect, which
spring from authority or from faith. And to what
staff of teachers would the State have confided the
care of this education if not to lay teachers, who
mingle in the life of the times, who are free from the
limitations imposed by a particular sect, and who
recognize no other superiors than the inspectors of the
State? By what strange misapprehension could any-
body who prides himself on his intelligence see a
Jacobin or a positivist purpose (I do not refer to the
intolerant measures of an occasional town council)
in the law itself, which does not exclude from the
public school any one of our sons or daughters (whether
Catholics in their immense majority, or Protestants,
Jews, or free thinkers, merely requiring that they be
servants of the State) while teaching according to
reason the things which reason dictates, and abstain-
ing from teaching according to authority the things
which are not based upon reason ?
This plan was not only legitimate; it was nee-
60 FRENCH EDUCATIONAL IDEALS OF TODAY
essary in a country like ours, where the Church has
always assumed, and too often exercised, tlie right
to the monopoly and sovereign control of moral teach-
ing. If she had shown herself less hostile to our in-
stitutions, more disposed to tolerance and to social
relations, it would have been possible to open tlie
school doors to her clergy and to have them give con-
fessional teaching to their adherents. But even under
these conditions lay society would have failed in its
duty; it would have abrogated its essential right if
it had failed to give moral instruction itself, accord-
ing to its own spirit and method, in view of the needs
of a democracy which is establishing itself in the midst
of a thousand risks and perils.
Was this scheme chimerical ? Only those will think
so who forget that society lives by a certain quota of
beliefs and generally adopted rules, and that this
quota, in spite of or by means of revolutions in ideas
and institutions, is always being clarified, expanded,
deepened. Is it not true that legislators when pro-
mulgating their laws, fathers and mothers when bring-
ing up their children, teachers when approving or
censuring their pupils, moralists when passing judg-
ment upon action or character, implicitly refer to a
certain idea of man, of the individual man, of the man
in the family, of the citizen? And can it be denied
that in spite of the doctrinal uncertainties of the
present, the idea of humanity is richer today than it
has ever been, and is in many respects more ac-
tive.'^ . . . Doubtless the contemporary conscience,
at least in France, has allowed certain essential traits
of humanity to be effaced and almost lost : humility.
FELIX PECAUT 61
resignation, habitual conservation of the soul and
life as opposed to their disintegration, love of silence
as opposed to wastage of thought and word, sincere
charity toward one's neighbor, the fruit of humility
and the exact knowledge of self, vigilant control of
the inner life, and in general a just value placed upon
this invisible life, from which the life that is seen flows
incessantly in word and deed but whose secret escapes
others and often escapes ourselves. Present society
has, nevertheless, retained or appropriated by as-
similation a number of precious traits borrowed from
Christian and historic ideals and from the philosophy
of the last century. Taken together they make up
a sort of credo tacitly accepted by all. Such are
justice, or the idea of right which, together with that
of social duty, has been extended in various new direc-
tions ; the idea of human dignity existing in all men,
which is the true basis of democracy and of free in-
stitutions, and from which proceed the respect of self
and of others, of woman and of the child; the idea
of the natural laws which rule us and impose upon us
the difficult condition of effort, pain, and perseverance
in the moral order, as in all else ; the idea of the moral
destiny of man, and of the high value it confers on the
temporal interests of our present life with its diverse
activities ; the idea that man is called to shape his
destiny freely, that is to say, constantly to impose
order in the chaos of instincts, blind impulses, ob-
scure whims, and noble aspirations that he carries
within him, in a word, to bring forth from the natural
man the real and hidden man, the only one worthy
of his august name; the idea that after having con-
62 FRENCH EDUCATIONAL IDEALS OF TODAY
ceived this order he is called by a quite natural vo-
cation to realize it in everyday life, and to that end to
subdue and discipline himself by strict habit. Such
a view of education which few among us would dare
contradict openly puts us, I think, very far short from
absolute determinism, as well as from the indulgent
and skeptical naturalism of Montaigne, that assails
on all sides the spirit of our generation.
Another feature of the tacitly accepted contemporary
credo is that moral discipline, while aiming first of all
at the health of the soul, is secular, as opposed to
ecclesiastical or idealistic asceticism. The present
life with its fundamental instincts is legitimate, but
it is nevertheless matter which the mind must pene-
trate. If matter be suppressed or diminished there is
no longer real morality, but if morality, that is to say
the higher phase of the mind, be suppressed, there is
no humanity, and from that moment life is valueless ;
it is no longer human life, but it falls within the scope
of natural history.
In the same way the principle of personal responsi-
bility which is unanimously conceded to govern the
whole ethical world and consequently occupies the
place of honor in lay teaching, is opposed to the deadly
principle of sacerdotal tutelage, the most disastrous
solvent of peoples and individuals, is opposed to simple
control through habit, through established custom,
through worldly propriety, and is likewise opposed
to mere civil or religious training of the mind. . . .
To these ideas must be added a better comprehension
of the solidarity of all, both great and small, by way
of support for the principle of brotherhood through
F£LIX PfiCAUT 63
inevitable community of interest ; a conviction, grow-
ing stronger day by day, that in the long run no one
in the body politic can live, prosper, or even perfect
oneself alone; that the physical and moral destiny
of each is linked with the destiny of all ; that we shall
perish together or together work out our salva-
tion. ... In enumerating all these truths of our
belief or experience I have not exhausted the subject,
but I have said enough to show that the soul of today
is not left helpless, bereft of rule, defense, or means of
existence. ... A father, a lycee teacher or a school-
master, a statesman or a man of the world can make
appeal to these ideas with the certainty of awakening
a response. If they are not a dogmatic credo, they
are nevertheless beliefs generally reputed to be good
coin of standard currency. Therefore, without de-
ceiving myself as to the extent or depth of the results
secured, I judge that the preaching (I use the word
advisedly) in the school of numerous and ingenious
manuals of morality, of ministerial instructions, of
inspectors in their lectures, and of schoolmasters in
their classes, has not remained sterile. No one will
deny that instruction has awakened a multitude of
minds to the elementary life of the intelligence; but
it has done and is doing more : it has awakened
personal powers in great numbers; better yet, in
order to discipline these powers, it is in the act of cre-
ating the beginnings of moral and rational tradition,
right habits of mind and feeling. It is true that this
is but a beginning, subject to many vicissitudes ; the
results escape the rude figures of statistics; and
furthermore it is futile to expect that a work so new
and of this character should be achieved in a few years.
64 FRENCH EDUCATIONAL IDEALS OF TODAY
THE USE AND ABUSE OF PEDAGOGY i
Pedagogy today is in high favor; one could almost
say it is fashionable. A foreigner visiting our country
and reporting to his compatriots the most conspicuous
feature he saw, that which occupies the greatest
number of minds, which causes us to publish the
greatest number of books, which seems to be in honor
both in Parliament and in the ministries, at Paris
and in the provinces, in the city and in the village,
would run no risk of making a mistake by writing in
his memoranda: "France is turning pedagogue."
Courses of lectures public and private, higher normal
schools, official programs, examinations of high and
low degree, books on method, historical textbooks,
collections of extracts — seemingly nothing is lacking
that serves to cultivate the art of education and to
propagate it. One finds theory, general and special
method, the theory and practice of education properly
so called, that is to say the manner of forming the
mind and character. We make no pretense of abandon-
ing anything to chance or routine. We wish to an-
ticipate everything, to regulate everything according
to reason and in the light of history. This explains
the introduction into our primary programs ^ of certain
studies, which without exaggeration may be called
new, so great is the importance they have assumed :
psychology, or the science of the faculties of the mind
and their development, aided by physiology, which
brings out the action of the physical on the moral;
* USducation jmblique et la vie nationale, pages 53-57.
* In the programs of the primary normal schools.
FEUX PECAUT 65
rational ethics or the science of the principles which
should regulate conduct and the motives which deter-
mine the action of the will; finally the history of
pedagogy. In the midst of this topsy-turviness,
what becomes of the old-time schoolmaster? One
might say he is rapidly becoming a relic. The "edu-
cator" is making his advent in France, armed with
rational principles and scientific methods, no less than
with technical knowledge and skill.
Some good people grow anxious at the sight of this
flood of primary pedagogy, which seems to continue
to rise. If we take their word for it, they are some-
times tempted to regret the old master and his humble
routine; or rather they invoke common sense and
experience to combat the peril of a new scholasticism,
more refined than the old, and they think the more
to be dreaded in proportion as its processes are more
methodic.
However, in matters like this we must not abandon
ourselves to ill humor or base our judgments upon
impressions alone. How can we refuse to recognize
that there is a science and an art of education, until
now too much neglected in their application to primary
work ? In other words, how can we refuse to recognize
that there is a unity of principles, general rules, and
processes of application founded upon the observation
of human nature; that this observation, whether
psychological or physiological or moral, should con-
form to the rules of scientific experiment in order to
arrive at positive results ; that this art has its boughs
and branches (teaching and education, physical, intel-
lectual, moral, aesthetic) which in turn have special
66 FRENCH EDUCATIONAL IDEALS OF TODAY
rules due to their particular purpose or to the faculties
they bring into play? Is it not obvious that there
is a good and a bad way to conceive and direct edu-
cation in general; that there is also an art of teach-
ing history or literature well, which is not the art
of teaching mathematics, and which varies according
to the age of the pupil; that there are good and bad
methods in developing or correcting the observation,
the judgment, the moral sense, the imagination; but
that all those branches are joined to a common trunk,
which itself depends upon a certain instinctive or de-
liberative way of considering man's nature and destiny ?
What is all that if not pedagogy? And can one be
afraid of making it too rational, that is to say, too
much in conformity with reality, with human nature
closely and methodically observed ?
In the same way is it not apparent to everybody
that good sense, or pedagogical sense which is merely
an application thereof, can gain in acuteness and
accuracy only if it is trained to control individual
experience by collective experience, that of the present
by that of the past; if it is accustomed by this com-
parison the better to distinguish the substantial
from the specious, the natural from the arbitrary,
the unfruitful germs from those that are fertile ? What
is more reasonable than to ask the teachers who have
preceded us for examples and advice, and instead of
foolishly making a clean sweep of the past to estab-
lish the present upon it as far as possible, striving
particularly to understand our national temperament ?
All this is the history of pedagogical theory applied
to education.
FfiLIX PECAUT 67
People should not imagine, then, that it is a proof
of good sense or intelligence to decry this new science.
It is new only in the importance given it today as a
very natural consequence of the necessities of our
democratic and lay regime. Pedagogy is quite as
French as it is German or English. We seek in vain
for a reason why we should cede to others any privi-
lege in this domain, we who have kept school during
the last three centuries with teachers like Rabelais,
Montaigne, Jacques Rousseau, Madame Necker de
Saussure, Pere Girard, and the like. Certainly if
there is a tradition that deserves to be called French,
and for which even foreigners honor us, it is precisely
our pedagogical tradition. It would be strange if
on the pretext of patriotism we should be forbidden
in the name of our national good sense to continue it.
Nevertheless, closer examination may reveal that
the apprehensions one sometimes hears expressed
may not be without foundation. People are right
in thinking that principles, rules, methods, science,
theoretical or practical, experimental or historical,
in a word pedagogy, far from being everything in
education, do not constitute the principal factors,
that they are but simple auxiliaries. In this matter
the most abundant and correct knowledge, the methods
best guaranteed by experience and history, do not
take the place of the greatest of pedagogical qualities,
which is the freedom of movement, the talent of rapid
and sure observation possessed by a healthy, well-
cultivated mind which is not a slave to any method or
the dupe of any process, a mind which without scrupu-
lousness <renews its means of expression and action
68 FRENCH EDUCATIONAL IDEALS OF TODAY
and obeys in this an inner logic more supple and
varied in aspect and not less restricted than the logic
of the school.
It is precisely this sovereign liberty of the mind, this
spontaneous activity, this ever-alert curiosity, this
faculty of creation, or, to put it more modestly, of
invention, of improvement, and continual renewal
that we may well fear to see cramped, dwarfed, and
warped, if not stifled, by too complicated a scientific
apparatus. This multitude of rules and methods
might easily weaken all original activity in the teacher
and at the same time hide from him uijder a wealth
of description the real human nature or even the
individual nature with which he has to deal. On the
one hand, it is possible that the personal buoyancy
of teacher and pupil be depressed by it, and on the
other that scientific formulas take the place of the
true life and the rich diversity of the mind.
Historical pedagogy itself, which is so well adapted
to preserve us from errors already condemned by
experience, performs the invaluable service of fecun-
dating our national genius by infusing into it at the
right moment that which is best in the genius of the
foreigner. It also risks diverting us from our natural
path and enervating us by giving us the habit of
imitation. Doubtless it is good for us, under penalty
of suffering the ordinary effects of isolation, to enter
into close relations with the nations that have given
us proof of vitality, like Germany, Switzerland, Eng-
land, and the United States. Foreign writers often
recommend themselves to us by their manner of con-
sidering educational matters, either more profound,
FfiLIX PECAUT 69
more subjective in a way than ours, or more practical,
less disinterested in taking cognizance of educational
matters. But who does not see that we should gain
little in allowing ourselves to be carried away by the
too systematic thinking of the Germans, by the posi-
tivistic and utilitarian spirit of the English, by the
narrow religious dogmatism of certain Swiss peda-
gogues, or the exclusively practical spirit of the Ameri-
cans? So many diverse influences operating simul-
taneously on different sides can enrich or impoverish
us, stimulate or enervate us, cloud our minds or clarify
them, take us out of our natural element or establish
us in it upon a broader foundation.
THE WOMAN NORMAL SCHOOL PRINCIPAL ^
A CONSIDERABLE change has taken place in the last
few years. Formerly the women principals of normal
schools and normal courses practically played the
parts of absolute monarchs in their institutions. Re-
mote from the public eye, they treated their teachers,
modest assistants or subalterns, with a high hand,
bending everything to their will. Today, however,
these same principals have to reckon with everybody,
with a prying press, with a public opinion constantly
on the alert, and especially with their teachers. These
latter, who have received the same culture as the
principals, are able to gauge the true value of their
superiors, and while according them the obedience
due their position, withhold their respect if it is not
1 V6ducation publique el la vie nationale, pages 163-177.
70 FRENCH EDUCATIONAL IDEALS OF TODAY
deserved. The same revolution (the word is not
too strong) which has taken place in political life,
in the family, in the relations between workman and
employer, is likewise coming to pass in public educa-
tion, whence gradually it wdll also extend to private
schools. The authority necessarily attached to the
oflSce of the principal has value in the long run only
if it is accompanied by personal superiority.
This superiority from which no minister can excuse
the principal does not rest upon excellence of special
knowledge or talent. One can meet, and one does
meet every day, teachers who unquestionably have
the advantage in this respect. But the real superi-
ority, that which eventually makes all heads bow before
it, is a superiority of reason, of character, and of heart.
**That is demanding a great deal," you may say.
To be sure, but it is not too much to meet the needs
of a position full of embarrassing situations and
responsibilities. Furthermore, if it be true that
natural gifts, and in particular a certain innate gift
of command, coimt for something in education, the
qualities that can be acquired by dint of open-minded-
ness, modesty, and application have quite another
value. It often happens that natural gifts quickly
degenerate and render mediocre service when they
are not supplemented by a moral culture that is con-
stant and steadfast.
I understand by superiority of reason, the ability to
discern clearly among things, persons, and characters,
between the general situation and the particular
case, among diverse interests in every line, the clear
and constant vision of the higher principle that must
FfiLIX PfiCAUT 71
be made to prevail, the view of the whole, and of the
salient points in that whole, the view of the relation,
among all the divisions of instruction and education,
to essential unity. When this superiority of reason
is combined with a firm and flexible will, one easily
recognizes it, for it is the best, the only guarantee of
justice, and a small, restricted society like a State
needs justice before all else. A principal in whom
one is sure of finding neither prejudice nor caprice
nor unevenness of temper nor hasty judgment, who
does not give way to the impression of the moment,
who does not swamp herself in details, who keeps her
mind far above the inevitable worry and friction of
everyday life, who judges each one by general con-
duct and not by accidental incidents, who moreover
shows herself capable of wisely regulating the progress
of the work, such a directress we can be sure will not
lack for authority.
Perhaps we shall tighten the knot still more by
insisting upon the general purpose, that higher prin-
ciple whose necessity we noted a moment ago. It
cannot be said too often that there is no true instruc-
tion or education where there is no spirit of education,
that is to say, an aim which dominates everything.
The aim in certain schools is success in examinations,
in admission to the higher schools, or appointment to
government positions. For this, no doubt, there is
need of order, police control, strict discipline, work
performed under close and regular supervision, with
lessons adapted to the end in view. All these things
are useful and have a value, but they are not educa-
tion. They belong to industry, a useful and well-
72 FRENCH EDUCATIONAL IDEALS OF TODAY
organized industry, to a well-constructed intellectual
machine. Furthermore, it is proposed to cultivate
the mind, to furnish young people with good habits
and good maxims, to make them well-bred men and
women, accustomed to good manners and the observ-
ance of social proprieties. The means are adapted
to the end. In the absence of a higher purpose, it is
a commonplace purpose which dominates; or rather
it is a sort of mechanism, coarse or refined, rudi-
mentary or scientific, which is substituted for the spirit,
in other words for life itself, for the untrammeled
action of the intelligence, for calling forth the soul's
vital forces, and among all these forces of that moral
conscience without which the personality remains
diffuse and scattered.
The spirit of education, as understood in our normal
schools, proposes, besides the obvious and useful
end of practical knowledge, an end which is not appre-
ciated by the uninitiated, and is apparently useless.
It aims to form upright minds and firm characters,
to train men and women capable of acting in accord-
ance wdth reason and justice, and fitted to take their
places in a democratic and liberal society. It is to
this spirit that the mechanism of theories, formulas,
methods, rules, precepts, and habits of every sort,
whether pedagogic, scientific, or moral, should be
subject. Finally, it is this spirit which directs the
organization of all school practices; without it they
would be powerless and practically non-existent.
It is this spirit which creates our school organization,
renews it after its own ideal, modifies and remodels
it as necessity demands. In France we are fanatics
FfiLIX PECAUT 73
on the subject of organization, with our decrees, pro-
grams, and regulations. We are as insistent upon
it in educational matters as in political, social, and
penal reforms. It would be enough to respect this
organization, to recognize its necessity, and to give
it our constant attention without, however, forgetting
that it is from the soul that life proceeds.
If all this be true, it is clearly apparent that the
principal of a normal school, that is to say of a school
which sets the standard for all the primary schools,
will have an influence that is proof against inevitable
accidents as well as against her own weakness only
so far as the spirit of education is realized and in a
manner personified in her. Through all the difficulties
of everyday life she is and remains in the eyes of her
teachers and pupils the respected mistress, only in
so far as she shows herself obedient to this spirit.
Therein should lie her real, her inner influence, which
alone confers on her the right to lead those about her.
People submit without a murmur. In the end they
even cordially adapt themselves to a control which
is not only reasonable in the ordinary sense, but which
expresses a higher and more universal purpose than
immediate and tangible utility, such for instance as
success in examinations. Such an aim, an educa-
tional purpose which on one side touches the very
sources of moral life, and on the other the temporary
or permanent needs of the people and the fatherland,
becomes the true standard of the school, rendering
each one's task easy, sweetening daily intercourse,
relieving the monotony of work, cheering the heart,
and prolonging youth. Is there anything surprising
74 FRENCH EDUCATIONAL Ii:)EALS OF TODAY
in all that, since it also lends a soul to the community ?
And where can one learn of such a purpose if it is not
read in living characters in the entire person and con-
duct of the principal ?
To be in one's heart of hearts, and in the habitual
attitude of one's soul, what one strives to appear,
what one professes, what one's function implies —
let us not seek elsewhere this intimate secret of moral
ascendancy. Heads of schools must not forget that
they are objects of perpetual investigation. On all
sides people are watching them, measuring them, and
judging them, setting aside all prestige and reduc-
ing them to their exact valuation. K people excuse
them for being neither learned nor eloquent nor clever
administrators, they will not pardon them for belying
inwardly, in character or in temperament, the repu-
tation that they have managed to acquire outside.
Their infallible judges are neither the inspectors nor
the rectors ; they are the teachers and the pupils.
Principals may give a misleading impression to the
former ; they cannot deceive the latter. As prudence
sometimes seals the lips of friendly witnesses when
it does not prompt flattering testimony, it happens
that the principal in deceiving her superiors, deceives
herself. She does not realize that all her authority
comes to her from without, and that in the eyes of
her subordinates she is merely the administrator of
a State institution. Sincerity, in the fundamental
meaning of the word, is the cardinal virtue for who-
ever presumes to train young people.
Let us go a step further. To what is this sincerity
reduced, this essential condition of authority, this
FfiLlX PfiCAUT 75
agreement between being and seeming to be, if the
being itself is inert and lacking in force and warmth;
in other words, if the external life being vigorous and
proper, the inner existence, the real personal life, is
devoid of thought and sentiment, if the mind and soul
are destitute of proper functioning ? ^
What remains, then, except to play a part, an honest
one no doubt, but one that cannot be transmitted to
others since it is lacking in truth? An attenuated
inner life soon betrays its barrenness when it is reduced
to mere notions, to reminiscences, to vague impres-
sions, when it is not renewed day by day in medita-
tive reflection, and when it cuts itself off from present-
day life of nation or people.
n
To direct is doubtless to regulate — that is, to put
each thing in its proper place and to hold each indi-
vidual to his duty ; but before all else its function
is to inspire, to imbue all with a common spirit. Where
there is no inspiration there is no education, no, not
even fruitful intellectual activity. What remains
is but a school workshop where human tools are per-
fected in view of the most useful possible production.
In a shop of this sort the principal is only the chief
skilled mechanic, or if one prefers a more flattering
designation, the more or less skilled engineer. An edu-
cational establishment should be a living organism
which carries within itself its motivating principle,
its own soul. To set this soul free in full light of day
is the function of the directress.
To inspire, it is hardly necessary to add, is not to
76 FRENCH EDUCATIONAL IDEALS OF TODAY
dominate minds and consciences, nor to ask of others
the sacrifice of judgment or of wiU. That is pedagogical
immorality and impiety. To inspire, on the contrary,
is to free, to stimulate thought, feeling, and personal
energy in others. It is to awaken dormant forces
giving them a high purpose to realize. A principal
who washes to be everything in her house, who tries to
make her views prevail without discussion and without
reservation, is exerting a pressure doubly suffocating,
since it dwarfs the mind as well as the conduct.
Neither is it inspiring to surround young souls with
an insinuating tenderness, to enervate them by a sort
of continuous hj^notic suggestion, and reduce them
to an effacement of themselves, the more dangerous
in proportion as it has the appearance of liberty.
The expression of Vauvenargues : "Servitude lowers
men to the point of making itself loved by them,"
so true where politics and religion are concerned,
is no less true in education. If this can be verified
in ecclesiastical houses of either sex, it deserves like-
wise to be considered in lay schools for girls, where
the teachers wish to be loved, instead of being merely
respected, where the pupils willingly respond to this
desire, and where the temptation may come to the
principal to take imibrage at the affection shown
her colleagues, and to claim for herself a privileged
position in the affection of her pupils. In view of
the diflSculties and occasional perils of semi-public
life and the hardships inseparable from their profes-
sion, our young teachers need primarily to be fortified
with strength of character. At the normal school
they must not breathe an air of languor and senti-
FELIX PECAUT 77
mentality. No doubt the directress who could only
command and teach without knowing how to love
and make herself loved would be unfit for her duty.
If one could fathom the secret of every great educator,
one might expect to find a great capacity for loving.
But I am speaking of a real love, a love mingled with
respect and discretion, not of a languorous and ener-
vating affection, and still less of an egotistic and capri-
cious affection, which is spent on favorites, teachers
or pupils, instead of spreading over the entire school
and extending to all mutual respect and courage for
the daily task, in addition to a feeling of security
and happy confidence.
Neither does inspiration come from preaching.
Speech is without doubt the greatest instrument of
persuasion and reasoning. Aside, however, from the
fact that it is not the only instrument, that physiog-
nomy, bearing, and even silence have their eloquence,
speech is the more effective the more it blends with
the real individual instead of being the mere verbal
expression of teacher or principal. One who has no
serious influence may excel in fine speaking. The
girls quickly perceive that she delights in mere talk-
ing, that she puts into it her intelligence and literary
sense and not her soul, that she gives at the very most
her ideas but not herself, because previously she has
not devoted herself unreservedly to truth and duty.
Simplicity, that is, perfect truthfulness of the heart,
mind, and language, will always be the virtue par
excellence of a woman intrusted with the education
of children, be she mother or teacher. Indeed, what
is it to be simple, if not to impart one's whole self
78 FRENCH EDUCATIONAL IDEALS OF TODAY
just as it is, to make the gift of self, not merely of
one's knowledge or talent, and in the magnificent
words of Marcus Aurelius, to "penetrate into the
soul of others and let others penetrate into our soul"?
Who would not yield in the long run to an influence
of this sort? People resist those who preach, but
surrender to him who surrenders himself. However,
to surrender the self, it is necessary to possess it and
not to become estranged from it under penalty of
giving others but a shadow of one's personality.
So we come back by this detour to the supreme neces-
sity, that of an active, uninterrupted inner life.
We must not grow tired of insisting, for this is a
capital point. A principal who practices this inner
life will be promptly warned of her mistakes and
defects. She will not allow herself to be imposed upon
by the deference, the flattery, or the silence of her
teachers. She will see more clearly than any one
else into herself and into her conduct. She will not
allow a court to be formed around her. However
disposed she may be to "penetrate others and let
herself be penetrated," she will not forget the reserve
in which a woman should unceasingly wrap herself
as in a veil, a necessary protection at once against
herself and against others. She will apply herself
all the more thoroughly to becoming her own mistress,
the more liberally she is obliged to give of herself.
She will know better than to affect the airs of a sover-
eign or an administrator of high rank for whom the
whole school rises as often as she deigns to appear;
but she will not make herself the comrade of her
pupils nor the confidante of her teachers. It will be
FfiUX PfiCAUT 79
enough for her to be their friends. She will know
how to observe in her whole manner, in her carriage,
and in the details of her dress, the dignity which warns
every one to remain in his place and prevents the
familiarity of life in common from degenerating into
an ordinary pell-mell.
She will never fall into the ridiculous defect, pos-
sessed by more than one teacher, of believing herself
to be of higher rank than her pupils, as if all teachers
of both sexes did not come of plebeian stock. But
she will not neglect an important part of her task as
teacher, which is to train her pupils to be courteous,
to have good taste, refinement of manners and lan-
guage, all that marks the external characteristic of a
well-brought-up woman. Without haughtiness or af-
fectation she will set her teachers an example of act-
ing as an elder sister or a mother. She will enter
unaffectedly into all the details of dressing room, din-
ing hall, and dormitory. She will not make herself
ridiculous in the eyes of sensible people by not accom-
panying the pupils on their walks, as if this mark
of maternal affection toward those whom she calls
"her daughters" made her fall from her high rank.
Of all the pernicious examples she can set before her
teachers none is as bad as that ; none will more surely
and more justly ruin her in the estimation of her
pupils ; for she will thus have disclosed the measure
of her small mind and her still smaller soul.
Ill
I have said nothing as yet of the moral teaching
which the regulations have intrusted to the principal.
80 FRENCH EDUCATIONAL IDEALS OF TODAY
For more than one reason these are assuredly most
important of all. It is not only because moral teach-
ing gives the reasons and the rules for living; it is
also because in giving them it brings the cumbrous
and discordant variety of the diverse subjects into
a certain unity. It marks a center, the very focus
of the conscience, where among all the theoretical
and technical applications of the intelligence, the
real man is formed. Principals of normal schools
are not mistaken about the importance and peculiar
dignity of this part of their task any more than in
regard to its extreme difficulty. They know very well
that teaching of such a serious character is not a
simple subject on the program among other subjects;
they know it is the very crux of all education. They
feel that while imposing a heavy burden, it confers
a privilege, and that exemption from it would divest
them of their principal influence.
As moral and lay teaching is the most characteristic
feature of our recent primary organization, so nothing
distinguishes the normal schools of today from those
of yesterday more than the assignment of this instruc-
tion to the principal. This secularization of moral
instruction which has been brought about in our
schools seems a novelty full of promise, however
modest and perhaps mediocre in method and results
it may appear at present. Consider well that it is
the superior of the establishment himself, the master
of its discipline and studies, who is called to speak of
truths and moral laws on his own responsibility, as of
things in which he believes, which he holds to be as
valid as all the other subjects that he teaches in the
FfiLIX PECAUT 81
school and for which he pledges himself. One cannot
measure the weight of an honest man's simple, earnest
words placed at the service of the highest moral prin-
ciples, when this honest man is a teacher whose knowl-
edge inspires confidence. He does not need to be a
philosopher or an orator to make himself heard; his
yes and his no are authoritative. Drawing moral
truths into the circle of ordinary teaching is not lower-
ing or impoverishing them; it is treating them as
something real and serious, as first among the real
and serious subjects touched upon in the school.
Again, it is necessary that these lessons be given
in the spirit in which they were instituted, in a spirit
of sincerity and practical earnestness, and that the
more particularly feminine gifts of moral intuition,
intellectual modesty, and sensibility be mingled with
the qualities of seriousness and strict method that such
a teaching demands. Is anything more disagreeable
or less practical than to hear a woman recite (when she
does not dictate it) a course in moral instruction, parts
of which a shrewd schoolgirl would easily find in
several well-known textbooks, or to hear her treat
the things of the soul and of human destiny with a
dryness of method, language, and voice which would
not even become a teacher of mathematics, or to see
her display, with regard to ideas of life or death, her
brilliant facility of speech or the treasures of her
memory ? Dryness in such subjects or mere rhetorical
treatment is disagreeable enough in a man ; how much
more so in a woman whom one expects to treat these
subjects with modesty, simplicity, and seriousness,
associating with the demonstrations of reason "those
82 FRENCH EDUCATIONAL IDEALS OF TODAY
reasons of the heart which reason does not always
understand '* ! If she is merely a fine speaker, she
will promptly wear out her credit, and her prestige
will be riddled by intelligent young women. But if
she thinks before speaking, if she feels what she has
thought, if she teaches under the dictation of her
whole soul and most intimate experience, if in a word
her character and her habitual conduct accord with
her teaching, one may be sure that, even with the
most mediocre talent, she will have and will hold the
ear of her pupils. The teacher of moral instruction
will become what was intended when this subject
was introduced into the schools, the chief ethical
guide.
IV
From whatever side we approach the subject, we
are led to recognize how important it is that the prin-
cipal, while retaining the feelings and the ways of her
sex, should possess in sufficient measure certain quali-
ties of strength and reason which mistakenly pass
for qualities exclusively virile. According to the
judicious advice of Madame Necker de Saussure,
"Woman must accustom half her mind to wait for the
other half." Neither sentiment nor impression, much
less mobile and capricious feeling, should be allowed
to gain the advantage over reflection. According
to the same writer, "We love to feel that under a
feminine envelope there breathes a moral being, one
capable of habitually showing that strength without
rigidity which the word self-command defines."
In considering the education of girls, the writers
FfiLIX PfiCAUT 83
who have discussed woman's peculiar disposition
have not called sufficient attention to all the energy,
courage, perseverance, good sense, and foresight
that a great many women, especially the plebeian,
display before our eyes in the management of their
homes, as well as their firmness and dignity in difficult
situations. Living in a select society, they almost
always have in view only "society" girls, delicate
physically and morally, better fitted to be the orna-
ment of elegant assemblies than the assiduous and
vigilant guardians of the home and the valiant teachers
of their children.
If the principal is animated by this spirit of strength
and tenderness combined with reason and grace, she
will not be tempted to play the great lady; she will
be the mother first of all. While stooping and mak-
ing her pupils stoop to the commonest household
tasks, she will know how to show that they are not
incompatible with the most serious culture of the
mind and with real distinction. Receiving the hum-
blest families with a simple and dignified cordiality,
she will show that real superiority does not affect
aristocratic manners, and that it is possible to raise
, oneself intellectually and to raise one's standard of
living without the risk of losing social position thereby.
She will likewise beware of confounding seriousness
with forbidding austerity. Education does not elimi-
nate gaiety. Hence the first condition of learning to
live is to have the inclination to live and not to despair
in advance of destiny, whether of mankind or of one-
self. Whoever has not a certain reserve of optimism
deep down in his mind will not have fruitful influence
84 FRENCH EDUCATIONAL IDEALS OF TODAY
upon young people, for the essential instinct of young
people is to enjoy life and to blossom out completely
in its enjoyment. In vain you will flatter yourself
that you redeem this lack of confidence in life by
strict application to duty and even by self-sacrifice.
Your pupils need life and warmth; they need joy;
and how can you impart to them what you lack your-
self.? You speak to them of duty; you show them
the example. That is well; it is the principal thing,
provided that duty imply love, confidence, and cour-
age. But joy alone gives wings to the soul, and Chris-
tianity itself, which inspired the sadness of a Pascal,
well understood man's nature, when after having
made the happiness of being at peace with God the
hidden motive of activity, it dared say to him, "Be
always joyful."
May we be permitted to suggest that there is per-
haps one feature lacking, and not the least important
one at that, in this picture of the directress which we
are attempting to draw.f* To ask that she have,
besides a trained mind, a soul that is simple and close
to the people, a soul that is noble and generous, ca-
pable of understanding the diversity of situations, of
characters, of types of mind; to ask that she forget
herself, make herself all things to all men ; is not that
saying in other words that she will have a religious
soul; that in each one of her daughters she will see
the eternal through the ephemeral; that beyond ex-
ternal gifts or gifts of intelligence and imagination
and practical aptitudes, beyond all that which is
obviously pleasing in them, she will know how to seek
out and cultivate that which forms the mysterious
FfiLIX PfiCAUT 85
basis of feminine nature and its dignity, as well as
the dignity of mankind in general, in other words,
the feeling of an infinite God present in our individual
existence and transitory destiny, and, to use the
expression of Pascal, "at the same time above us
and within us"? That this feeling may not assume
the regular form of an ecclesiastical or philosophical
doctrine, we will readily admit. After having dared
to feed her with the bread of science, we could not
expect that woman should be less free from attacks of
doubt than man. Henceforth in the moral order
risks and perils are common to both; that is to say,
both man and woman have a common responsibility
from which no artifice or fiction can release them.
Since the woman brings to the common treasure
her dowry of intuition and the delicacy of her sex,
and since in return she is introduced by her education
into the realm of reason and justice, we cannot doubt
that this common responsibility will contribute day
by day to establish the moral unity of the family
and the peace of the home. She will thus know how
to preserve the obscure virtues that our civilization,
consecrated to unremitting activity and violent com-
petition, might be inclined to forget, to the great
detriment of nobility of soul, humility, sympathy,
contentment with little, patience, resignation, and
that acquaintance with the things of eternity outside
of which the things of this life and life itself lose their
value. Therefore may the principal train the young
teachers of the people to consider themselves devoted
to a divine task, in which they are working in the direc-
tion of God himself, by raising from the depths of
86 FRENCH EDUCATIONAL IDEALS OF TODAY
unconsciousness and vulgar instinct, by the aid of the
elements of knowledge, the woman of conscience and
of reason, capable of truth and justice no less than of
love ! Thus the obscure existence of the school-
mistress will be softened, ennobled, and sanctified
in advance. How I should pity her if she did not
carry away from the normal school with her diploma
a little of this spiritual viaticum ! Without knowing
anything about it, I dare affirm that among the intelli-
gent and devoted women who preside over our normal
schools there are very few who feel that they have
done their duty toward their pupils unless, before
dismissing them, they have imparted to them at least
a spark of this sacred Bre.
MADAME KERGOMARD
Madame Pauline Kergomard (1838- ), general inspector of
kindergartens, has worked out a method of educating very young
children, similar to the Froebelian method but less rigid and less
dogmatic in form. Her services to the schools during the last
thirty years have gained for her a title rarely given to women, that
of Officer of the Legion of Honor. The two volumes of L'Sducation
maternelle a VScole are fiill of details, illustrations, and valuable
advice for kindergarten teachers.
WHAT IS AN INFANT SCHOOL .?i
"Infant schools," says the regulation of August 2,
1882, **are educational establishments, where children
of both sexes receive the care that their physical, in-
tellectual, and moral development demands," — as
they would receive it, we may add, from an intelligent
and tender mother.
The infant school is an enlarged family ; the principal
is the mother of a large number of children. What do
children of from two to four do in their families?
They rival the birds in incessant activity and unin-
terrupted chattering. They do not do anything
definite, much less do they have "lessons," but they
do what they have need to do, since ordinarily they
develop physically, intellectually, and morally with-
out effort, at least without apparent effort, and with-
out interference from the mother. They move about
as much as is necessary ; they work as if they were
paid by the day, trying and expending their strength.
Unconsciously they learn the names and uses of the
objects around them. Their vocabulary, at first
restricted to the simple "papa" and "mamma," is
1 Une icole matemeUe. From L'Sducation maternelle dans VScole,
Hachette, 4th edition, 1908, pages 12 et seq.
87
88 FRENCH EDUCATIONAL IDEALS OF TODAY
enriched day by day. Happy in their daily conquest
they chat with their mother, their father, with animals,
with themselves, about what they see, about what
they do, about what angers or pleases them. Un-
consciously, too, they learn to hve in society. Then
when they are tired they are quiet of their own accord.
WTiat is easier or more interesting than to guide them
in the way they have started ?
I have never seen a healthy child idle. When kept
still, he needs material for his activity. In a bare
room with no object within reach, the child would be-
come sad; yet this is abnormal. But he is quite
indifferent as to the material placed at his disposal.
Mud, sand, rags, paper, chips of wood, a green leaf
or a dry leaf, everything suits him provided he can
make something out of it himself and provided he can
give this something the imprint of his little personality.
A luxurious toy that is unchangeable in shape does
not please him for more than an instant, while sand,
pebbles, or a string will interest him every day.
THE NEW PROGRAM FOR INFANT SCHOOLS ^
A NEW program has been worked out for infant schools.
It begins thus :
The infant school is not a school. It should, as far as possible,
imitate the procedure of an intelligent and devoted mother. The
method should be essentially famihar, always progressive, always
subject to completion and revision.
So many ideas, so many pearls, for who knows how
to appreciate this new foundation of the infant school !
In the last analysis, the infant school is to draw in-
* USducaiian matemelle dans rScole, pages 96 et seq.
MADAME KERGOMARD 89
spiration from the only model that can be of use to it.
Those who made this program said, "Since the infant
school must take the place of the family, let us ask
the family how it proceeds."
This brings us to the crux of the whole matter.
Would that principals would draw their inspiration
from the general ideas of the program rather than from
the special program attached to the circular! Would
that they would take its spirit, neglecting the letter
of the law as much as possible ! To be frank, on the
one hand the spirit of the special program wants the
infant school to be an enlarged family; on the other
its letter makes the infant school a scientific school which
can be excellent or deplorable according to the degree
of culture, tact, and pedagogical sense of the principal.
Let us glance at a family in normal circumstances,
that is to say, a family whose head — we may call
him "minister of foreign affairs" — is occupied out-
side the home all day long, while the mother, "minister
of the interior," takes charge of the management of
the household and the children's education.
The child moves about and busies himself. He
busies himself with playing. Playing is the child's
work. All educators worthy of the name have main-
tained this. It is Froebel's great claim to renown.
To keep busy, the child must have material objects
at his disposal. The child who can barely walk pushes
a chair before him and supports himself by it. His
elder brother makes an improvised horse out of his
chair. Then there are the toys, the real toys, from
the jingling rattle of the baby in arms up to the game
of dominoes with which the dean of five years learns
90 FRENCH EDUCATIONAL IDEALS OF TODAY
to count up to twelve. Not only are there house toys
but there are garden toys. Toys and housekeeping
utensils make up the mother-school material. They
should also form that of the httle ones in the infant
school. This is really educative material, since each
of the objects which composes it contributes to the
physical and intellectual development of the child
who has it within reach. The little one who leans
on his chair understands that without it he would fall
to the floor; the one who makes a horse out of his
has first used his faculty of comparison and then his
faculty of imitation. The four legs of the chair re-
mind him of the four legs of the horse, and if he straddles
it instead of sitting down, it is in order to be like the
man on horseback whom he has noticed on the street
or on the road. He talks to his horse as the little
girl talks to the rag that serves her for a doll, while
the mother joins in this conversation.
In the garden, with marbles, skittles, balloons, and
sand, how many faculties are brought into play !
What a splendidly sound and profitable lesson in a
timely word ! We itahcize timely because the lesson
carries only when it enters into the thought of the
little child, when it comes at the right moment, when
it is opportune. To call the child's attention to a tree,
when he is playing horse, is wasted effort. You are
talking leaves and branches, while he ' answers legs
and tail. Teaching, to be fruitful, should not carry
the child into a region of ideas that is foreign to him ;
it should not cause him any intellectual fatigue. > Play,
supervised play, constitutes all the work a child in the
second division of the infant school needs.
ERNEST LAVISSE
Ernest Lavisse (1842- ), professor and historian. He is
professor of history at the Sorbonne, director of the Higher Normal
School, a member of the French Academy, grand officer of the
Legion of Honor, and the author of important works on the history
of France and the history of Prussia. M. Lavisse has exerted an
unprecedented moral influence over the youth of our schools. His
pedagogical work is not confined to^ the three volumes : Qiiestions
d'enseignement national, 1885; Etudes et StudiantSy 1889; A
propos nos Scales y 1894, but has taken the form of speeches and
numerous articles which have attracted widespread attention,
especially those published under the title Lettres d tous les Frangaisy
during the recent war.
-" THE FATHERLAND!
Dear children, I have acquired the habit of talking
to you about serious things. It is of something serious
that I shall speak to you again today, since the sub-
ject of my speech is the fatherland.
The fatherland is a territory inhabited by men who
obey the same laws. To create this territory and es-
tablish this community a great effort was necessary.
Beloved inhabitants of a canton of the green-carpeted
and forested Thierache, you who have keen and prac-
tical minds, quarrelsome tempers, and who preserve in
your speech words and phrases of the Picard tongue,
you scarcely resemble the Bretons who from their
rocks look dreamily out at the Atlantic and who speak
the ancient language of the Celts. Nor do you re-
semble the Provengals who shout in Romanic on the
shores of the Mediterranean. There was a time when
Picardy .was more; foreign to Brittany and Provence
* Address delivered at the prize distribution of the public schools at
Nouvion-en-Thierache (Aisne), August, 1905.
91
92 FRENCH EDUCATIONAL IDEALS OF TODAY
than are America and the Indies today. To create
our nation, nature, from whom we had previously
claimed our share of land and sky, had to contribute
for several centuries; then came politics, iron, and
fire, and finally mind and heart, each with its con-
tribution.
You have learned in history how our kings created
the kingdom of France. They acquired the different
provinces one after the other. The first step was for
Picards, Bretons, Gascons, and Provengals to unite under
the same master. Our fathers all became Frenchmen,
because they were all subjects of the king of France,
and the first national bond was common obedience.
In the actions of the king a whole people were interested.
Our fathers contributed of their money and their blood
to the enterprises of war. A victory for the king or a
defeat for the king gladdened or grieved the whole
kingdom. There grew up a habit of feehng the
same emotions simultaneously. France possessed a
national consciousness.
At the same time the community took a great step
forward intellectually. The French nation created
the French language. If today we speak a language
which is one of the most beautiful in the world, it is
because our fathers took a great deal of pains to make
it beautiful, and their effort lasted for centuries. In
our language, our fathers expressed their feelings and
their ideas. The Hterature of a people is like a general
"confession" of that people; in its literature a people
tells all its thoughts about nature and man. So French
literature has expressed the spirit and the peculiar
ERNEST LAVISSE 93
character of France; it has created a moral com-
munity within the pohtical community.
For a long time, for a very long time, the French
spirit was in accord with the king. It was the belief
of Frenchmen that the king was God's lieutenant on
this earth, that it was necessary to love and serve
him as they loved and served God. Fellow repub-
licans, you find it hard to understand this sentiment.
As you see, each period has characteristics of its own
which the following period no longer understands.
And yet these things were once legitimate. It is
foolish not^ to want to acknowledge that they were
formerly vital and very vital, just as it is foolish to
wish to revive them, for they are dead, dead indeed.
There came a day when the king and France had a
falling out. The king wanted the quarrel ; he wanted
it stubbornly, for the patience of our fathers was ad-
mirable; they were patient, so patient. The king-
dom suffered abuses of all sorts : inequality, injustice,
despotism. Genius protested louder ; it produced the
French ideal of liberty, of justice, of humanity. And
this was the French Revolution.
With the king fell the system of castes and privileges
which created private rights in the nation. All the
French shared equally in the fatherland, which was
declared one and indivisible. From that moment
France loved herself directly ; but what is it that she
loved above all else? Her great ideal of justice,
liberty, and humanity. That is why she had the right
to love herself passionately as she did. Our revo-
94 FRENCH EDUCATIONAL IDEALS OF TODAY
lutionary patriotism was one of the most beautiful
sentiments that history had known.
And today, more than a century away from the
Revolution, after so many vicissitudes, after those
signal honors, after those great reverses, after those
offensive returns of the past at the time of the restora-
tions, today, in the world so prodigiously transformed,
by what mark does France recognize herself, by what
mark do foreigners recognize her ? By her great ideal
of justice, of liberty, of humanity.
My children, our fatherland is then not merely a
territory; it is a human structure, begun centuries
ago, which we are continuing, which you will continue.
The long struggle of our fathers, the memory of their
actions and their thoughts, the monuments of their
genius, our language, our type of mind, our way of
imderstanding life, all that — with the rich beauty
of our land, with the mildness of our sky, with the
poetic variety of our landscape, our mists in the north
and our southern sunlight, our superb mountains and
our beautiful plains, our green seas, and our blue
ocean — that is your rich inheritance. It is our
country, the daughter of our spirit.
But your country is not the only country in the
world. Others surround you, which grew up dif-
ferently from ours, more slowly, like Germany or Italy,
or more quickly, like England. They created their
laws, their language, their literature. Like France
each one of them has expressed its sentiments and
ideas about nature and about humanity. Each one
ERNEST LAVISSE 95
of them has its genius, different from ours. Each one
of them is loved by its children as France is loved by
hers.
What should be the feeling and the conduct of these
fatherlands toward one another.^ That is a question
which at the present moment occupies, inflames, and
divides the minds of men.
For centuries the feeling was hate, and the conduct
was war. It seemed as though one could not love
one's country without detesting the others. It is true,
war was inevitable at the time when the states that
were forming quarreled over their frontiers. War is
often a phenomenon of growth and a determinant of
boundaries. For reasons of state the natural instinct
of violence which is in us was thus fostered, for hu-
manity is not natural to men. War became the great
function of the State; kings were born war chiefs;
men were born their lieutenants ; other men in great
numbers chose war as a trade and a means of liveli-
hood. Standing armies were created, and rulers made
war to keep these armies busy. Years of peace seemed
empty years. There were not many of them, for that
matter. Out of the sixty-two years that Louis XIV
reigned, he was at war during almost fifty years.
Pride, pleasure, habit, together with poHtical interest,
were among the incentives to the belligerents of long
ago. It was a terrible period in the history of hu-
manity ; today it seems barbarous to us.
Why? Other customs have become established.
Our great eighteenth century preached the idea of
humanity and taught the value of the human being.
The military epoch of the Revolution and the Empire
96 FRENCH EDUCATIONAL IDEALS OF TODAY
have left the need and the love of peace iu Europe.
In all countries industry has assumed an extraordinary
intensity, and industry desires peace. Commerce
and rapidity of communication have brought peoples
closer together. And again in almost all countries,
the mihtary trade has been replaced by the military
duty, and the professional army has given place to the
national army. And yet again, governments must
deal with public opinion today; almost all of them
must reckon with a national assembly. Here we have
a great innovation. War is no longer determined
exclusively by those who cause others to be killed;
those who are to be killed themselves have a voice
in the decision. That changes everything. Wars
are becoming more and more rare. The very govern-
ments preach peace, love it, or at least pretend to.
They conclude arbitration treaties, and there has been
drawn up a rough draft of an international court of
justice. Humanity seems to be organizing for peace.
My children, I am one of those who in all sincerity
applaud these efforts. I do not believe them chimerical
by any means. It is certain that the number of those
who love war is decreasing. War is on the decline;
to work against it is to act in the spirit of the future.
But I also know that I shall not see humanity recon-
ciled, and that no more will you. Centuries were
necessary to create a kingdom of France out of the
provinces. Who can say how many centuries will be
needed to create out of regions so widely different that
nation which will be called humanity? Even among
the peoples who style themselves the most civilized.
ERNEST LAVISSE 97
peace is not assured. A few weeks ago the only thing
one heard was talk of war among the nations of Europe.
You see even in Europe there are sovereigns still — ■
not many and not for always, it is true, but we have
to take our age as it is — sovereigns who have the
power to set war loose and to point with their finger
in the direction it must go and at the place it must
strike. But war can be born otherwise than of the
whim of a sovereign.
Let us not be deluded by certain remarks which
everybody repeats. As for me, I spoke a few moments
ago of the ease of communication which brings peoples
closer together. Orators celebrate the beauty of this
universal movement from place to place. They show
tufts of smoke floating over the waters and over the
land; but under these tufts glide armored cruisers
and torpedo boats. I read on railroad cars their
capacity : 36 men ; 8 horses. The proudest of the
sovereigns who yet reigns by the grace of God has
among his various responsibilities that of making the
most of the commerce of his subjects. His imperial
helmet protects their merchandise. Thus it is not so
true that commerce is peaceful. To the peace which
procures good business, it can very well prefer war
some day, if it hopes by this means to get better
business.
After all, my children, old indeed is the habit of war,
and very old the habit of national egoism. Instincts
remain dormant which can awaken with a start. No,
I shall not see humanity reconciled ; neither will you.
You will continue to live, as we are living, under the
regime of different fatherlands.
98 FRENCH EDUCATIONAL IDEALS OF TODAY
So the question comes back: "What should be the
sentiment and the conduct of countries toward one
another?" And to this question another is bound:
"What should be our sentiment and our conduct
toward our country ? "
I have already practically answered.
Countries should consider themselves as works of
man. Humanity permeates each one of them with
her natural diversity, for nature wishes humanity to
be diverse. Nature will never permit all the sons of
men to resemble each other. It is fortunate that this
is so, for this resemblance would be unbearable ugli-
ness. Nature is harmonious, and humanity is also
harmonious. Each of the fatherlands which humanity
has created in lands and under skies that are different,
in diverse circumstances, has her own aptitudes, her
own character, her own genius, and each one con-
tributes to the beauty of the whole. To serve one's
country is to serve humanity at the post where the
fortune of our birth has placed us.
If it is thus that you understand the fatherland, my
children, you will respect the fatherlands of others.
You will not want to do unto them what you would
not want done to yourselves. In you the dying spirit
of domination will breathe its last. It is not necessary
to hate the foreigner and to wish to subjugate him in
order to love one's fatherland.
As for your country, you will love it differently but
quite as much and even more than our ancestors loved
it in their time. You will love it instinctively, and
you will love it deliberately as well.
A natural instinct binds us to our ancestors with a
ERNEST LAVISSE 99
sort of sacredness, without subjecting us to their ideas
and customs, without condemning us to the servile
obHgation indefinitely to keep repeating their exploits.
It gives us a feeling of continuity, and accompanied
with the charm of long memories, it gives us that force
and tranquillity which rises from the deeply buried
root with the ever flowing sap.
But it is diflBcult for us Frenchmen to follow pure
instinct. We are like the children who want to know
what there is in the drum that makes the big noise.
That is why we have burst so many drums, behind
which other peoples who have kept them continue to
march with cadenced step.
Well, if you want to know the reason, so do I.
Suppose, then, you say to me: "It is an accident
that brought me into the world in France. I could
just as well have been born in England, in Germany,
or in Russia. I will not admit that all my life should
be bound by the act of a recorder who on the day of my
birth wrote in a register my name, which I did not
know and about which I did not care in the least.
"First of all, I am born a man. I wish to belong
only to humanity. It is humanity that I wish to
serve."
I will answer: "Humanity, that does not exist as
yet ; it is a great and beautiful idea ; it is not a fact.
You must have a fixed place in which to act, and I
defy you to serve humanity otherwise than through
the medium of a fatherland. Seek out, then, among
the different fatherlands the one that makes humanity
suffer least."
100 FRENCH EDUCATIONAL IDEALS OF TODAY
What accusation of inhumanity rises against France ?
By whom is she accursed? Have we an Ireland, a
Schleswig, a Finland, a Poland? Do we retain by
force in our community men who renounce their souls ?
Rather is it not we who one day dreamed of liberating
peoples, and has it not been the fortune of the ideas
of the Revolution to be implanted, by the very acts
of violence of the Imperial period, in the most impene-
trable jungles of past despotisms? Is the great and
proud Germany of today very sure that if she had not
been enlightened, stimulated, shaken, mistreated by
us, if we had not had 1789 and 1848, she would not
have continued to bow before a swarm of princelets
with all the seriousness that she gives to her respect,
while she was working at the problems of philosophy?
What is more, history teaches that for the last one
hundred and fifty years a people has mingled its blood
with that of the peoples who were struggling for exist-
ence. This is the nation which engaged in the American
war for the independence of the United States, in the
Morean expedition for the independence of Greece, in
the siege of Antwerp for the independence of Belgium,
in the Lombard war for the independence of Italy.
That people is om-selves.
On the other hand, here at home are we not work-
ing to free humanity from the complicated discipline
she imposed upon herself when she was younger?
Divine right is no more ; nor monarchy, nor caste, nor
hereditary hierarchy. There is no longer a Church
endowed with coercive power. No obstacle stands
in the way of our determination to establish justice.
Finally, through her humanity France has suflFered
EBNEST LAVISSE :^0t
much and is still suffering. It would have been better
for her had the neighboring nations remained humble
and divided against themselves. She would be more
tranquil if she had retained all the different kinds of
obedience, for obedience is a pillow conducive to sound
sleep. If, then, it be true that moved by an irre-
sistible inner force she manages the affairs of others
better than her own, if patriots reproach her for it,
should she not have the approbation of all who refuse
to set a boundary around their souls, which are en-
amoured of justice and humanity ?
Friends, feel free to take advantage of the right to
love, the right to prefer France, since even reason
proves that your instinct which leads you to love her
and prefer her does not lead you astray, for to serve
her is the most efficient means of serving humanity.
To bring this long and serious discourse to an end,
let us join in a common wish — I was going to say,
let us pray together :
May our France remain strong among nations.
May she be strong through her justice.
May her justice enable her to destroy within her
all the wrongs which are not inevitable, and may she
alleviate the others. May her democratic laws finally
elevate all Frenchmen to the dignity of being men, to
which so great a number among us have not yet
arrived.
May she be strong in liberty.
May the Republic, inflexible, persevere in taking
all authority from the powers of the past, but may
no conscience be wounded in religious faith, for ex-
tm FRENGH Em/CATIONAL IDEALS OF TODAY
perience has proved that such wounds cause cruel
sufiPering.
As the result of justice and liberty, may our country
be the heritage of all, and may no Frenchman feel
oppressed or crushed by her.
May the Republic be strong through her arms ; for
'^ if she let her annor fall, she would not be justified in
preaching peace, for which she would have too manifest
a need.
In awaiting the day, whose date we cannot even
imagine, when the different peoples will furl their
standards, and after saluting these venerated symbols
for the last time, will bum them on a great bonfire,
may the flag of France float high in the heavens ; for
it bears no monogram nor heraldic beast; it belongs
to neither man nor dynasty ; it belongs to a free people
that respects the Hberty of others and desires that this
liberty be preserved. Yet if our flag gave way, one
would see the shadow of the double-headed eagles
"^lengthen out over the earth.
May our frontier on the east not be provocative
of strife, but let it stand firm. May it not lack a man
N or a cartridge, so that no one either on this side of the
^ frontier or the other can fear or believe that a wish
will suffice to cross it; so that no one dare propose
to take us in tow, we whose destiny it is to be a glorious
and venturesome vanguard.
May the French people ever remain a vanguard, proud
of the honor, though conscious of the peril ; and indis-
solubly united through this double sentiment, let them
lead the difficult march toward that far-away peace
which the international wisdom of the future will give us.
ERNEST LAVISSE 108
AN OPEN LETTER TO THE TEACHERS OF
FRANCE ON CIVIC EDUCATION ^
Before taking up my subject, I am going to relate
three anecdotes that are absolutely authentic and very
simple, and from them I shall draw a conclusion.
A poor woman came to my home in the country
one day and asked to speak to me. As she explained
her trouble, she began to sob, and with great diflSculty
she told me through her tears what had happened to
her son. In sending New Year's greeting to one of his
sisters, the boy had written on the card four more
words than the five-centime postage allowed. The
card had been held at the other end; a complaint
had been drawn up; the sister had informed her
brother; and the mother had hurried to me. She
could not have been more agitated if her son had
committed a great crime, and she kept repeating:
"We are poor people; we have not even good health ;
we shall not be able to live. Are they going to punish-
my boy?" I reassured her and promised to write to
the proper authorities. I did so. My request was
granted, and the poor people were let off cheaply, I
should say, if there were such a thing as cheapness for
the very poor.
One of my nearest relatives had dealing with the
courts, not for himself, but in behalf of a friend who
had been unjustly accused of perjury. He decided
to go to see the judges at Vervins. As my home was
on his way, he stopped, told me the story, and at the
^ Manud ghUral de Vinatruction primaire, February 19, 1898.
104 FRENCH EDUCATIONAL IDEALS OF TODAY
last moment as I was seeing him to his cart he remarked :
"I have two miserable hares in my box. They are
for the presiding judge." I begged him to come back
into the house, and I had the utmost difficulty in mak-
ing him see that his present would be unwelcome. I
added that he would better leave the hares with me,
and we would eat them together at the earliest op-
portunity.
The mayor of an important rural town (I am a friend
of his, and I have the story direct from him) heard a
man muttering behind him on the street. Turning
around, he recognized a drunkard of his acquaintance
and passed on, but the man continued to mutter. As
his words became more distinct, the mayor heard him
say: "I've already given twenty francs, and I've got
to cart wood besides." At this my friend turned
around and asked the man to explain himself. The
man related that a month before he had given twenty
francs to the country policeman because of some mis-
chief his youngster had committed, and that now the
policeman wanted to make him haul a load of wood.
It was impossible to obtain a clearer explanation. Up-
on inquiry, the mayor discovered that a band of little
boys had broken into a locksmith's and had taken
some files. The locksmith had complained to the
policeman, who had constituted himself a sovereign
magistrate. Among the youngsters was the son of
the drunkard, who happened to be in comfortable
circumstances. The constable represented to him the
enormity of the crime, spoke of gendarmes and of the
police court, and finally offered to compromise the
EBNEST LAVISSE 105
affair for twenty francs. The twenty francs were paid,
and I suppose they were divided between the lock-
smith and the poHceman. A month went by; the
locksmith ordered his supply of wood, and it came
time to haul it in. The boy's father had a horse and
cart. Why should not he cart it gratis pro Deo? A
hint was given to the policeman, and the latter ordered
it done. The order would have been obeyed if the
mayor had not intervened.
There are my three anecdotes, and here are the
conclusions I draw from them. The poor weeping
woman, the man with the hares, and the man fleeced
by the country policeman are indeed the descendants
of the peasants of old, and they have retained a strik-
ing resemblance to their great grandfathers.
Is not the poor woman the great granddaughter of
poor creatures pitilessly crushed under the weight of
the State, who always saw some "harm" coming to
them ?
Is not the man with the hares the great grandson
of the defendants of yore who believed that those
who failed to bribe the judge had no claim to justice ?
And the man of the twenty francs, is not he the great
grandson of the serf who had no rights, of the serf who
was responsible for taxes and labor at his master's
behest ?
Now I could relate many stories like those I have
just told.
Look around you carefully, and you will find every-
where survivals of ancient serfdom ; you will find the
century-old fear of the authorities. Too many French-
106 FRENCH EDUCATIONAL IDEALS OF TODAY
men do not know that there are such things as right
and justice, or at least conduct themselves as if there
were none. They believe that there are powers whose
"protection" must be sought because they distribute
"favors." As for the rest, what they desire above all
else is not to have relations with any one, to live tran-
quilly and as far as possible unnoticed, to burrow at
home.
Oh ! assuredly the French Revolution did not waste
all its effort. It produced principles that will endure
and will always endure, principles like personal freedom
and the freedom to hold property. But a hundred
years have not sufficed for liberty to penetrate the
soul, to evolve a State which would represent a per-
fected French Revolution. Gentlemen, help us to
complete the French Revolution. You can do so by
giving especial attention to moral and civic instruction.
Combined with history, moral and civic instruction
would be of great benefit.
I should like to have history taught in the schools
by a very different method from the one at present
forced upon us by the programs and the system of
examinations. I would that the history taught the
people be above all else the history of the people
through the centuries, the history of the immense
effort toward justice and liberty, toward right. This
teaching would not require more time than that of to-
day ; it would require less. It could be simple, hvely,
practical, and clear as the day.
Without bias, without injustice, without hate toward
the past, this teaching would veer toward the present.
It would show how much time and effort and strife
ERNEST LAVISSE 107
and misery have been necessary to raise the French
subject of yesterday to the dignity of the French
citizen of today. It would show that this dignity is
precious and that it must be guarded jealously. It
would be, as it were, a preface to that civic instruction
which deals with the rights and duties of the French
citizen such as the history of France has made him.
In reality, civic instruction consists in teaching
rights and duties.
In this connection I shall criticize frankly the banal
motto: "It is duties that must be taught; as for
rights, the people will learn them rapidly enough."
I maintain on the contrary that rights are imperfectly
known, and that we must begin by making them known,
for from the knowledge and the practice of rights issue
and proceed the knowledge and the practice of duties.
The Frenchman who would realize that he is abso-
lutely free and the equal of any other citizen in the
eyes of the law, that his vote has the same value as
any other vote, and that he possesses a share in the
government would understand that these rights and
honors cannot be free, that he must merit them by
acquitting himself of his duties toward the State.
How is a man who believes himself a "poor creature
of the earth," a victim of oppression, who still has in
his veins the poison of serfdom, to understand and
accept such onerous duties as the duty of paying the
tax in money and the tax in blood? He will try to
escape them as far as possible. He will demand of his
deputy first of all that the latter become his protector,
against the law if need be, and that the deputy like-
wise take an interest in his petty affairs.
108 FRENCH EDUCATIONAL IDEALS OF TODAY
I know that it is difficult for you, overworked as
you are, to give civic instruction as it should be given.
I know that your pupils are very young when they
leave school and that many will doubtless forget the
lessons taught there. It is essential, therefore, that
you make an important place for civic teaching in the
"instruction after school," which thanks to you is
beginning to be organized throughout France. You
must, I say, provide for this, for it is my profound
conviction that the only means of saving France is
to give our young people definite reasons for loving
their country and for discharging their duties toward
their country. If we succeed in this undertaking, it
will not only be our salvation ; it will mean greatness
and glory, the greatest glory that France has ever
reached. And the French democracy will finally be-
come a reahty !
You may say : "But you are talking only of politics.
Do you, then, want to introduce poKtics into the
schools?" No more than at present.
Although civic instruction is but a chapter in ele-
mentary teaching, many grave symptoms warn us that
it is necessary to look after this particular chapter.
Things are not going well ; we must think seriously
of the future. Besides, it is not playing politics; it
is teaching history to teach our beloved Frenchmen
that they are noble beings, the noblest among the
children of men, because they are the freest and the
richest in rights. Teaching them that they ought to
assume their share of the burdens as well as of the
honors, that they ought to obey the law and obey
those whose function it is to enforce the law; pre-
ERNEST LAVISSE 109
paring them to consent to this obedience and to love it ;
forming souls at once proud and disciplined — is this
playing politics ? No, it is simply moral training.
The great citizen and historian Michelet thought
constantly of France at the very hour of his death, as
he thought of her all his life. In his deHrium he uttered
these strange words, "Henry V should have been fed
on the hearts of lions." The one whom he called
Henry V was the Comte de Chambord, heir of the old
French dynasty.
Did Michelet doubt in the depths of his soul that
our country, so long governed by kings, was capable
of living as a free and democratic republic ? Alas !
we understand only too well why this doubt should
have come to him. This doubt is one of the torments
of all who think. And then, in the confusion of the
agony that was beginning, Michelet dreamed this
dream : France returned to a king, but to a king firm
and proud, to a king who fed on the hearts of lions.
Now Henry V died in exile, as his grandfather Charles X
died, as died his cousin Louis Philippe, as died the last
sovereign that France has had, the Emperor Na-
poleon ni. It seems that France can no longer en-
dure a monarchy. If she cannot live as a republic,
what will become of her ? That is a terrible question.
She must live as a republic. But to this end our
children must be given a virile education; it is the
children of the people who must be fed on the hearts
of lions.
JEAN JAURES
Jean Jaur^s (1859-1914), pupil at the Higher Normal School,
afterwards a professor on the faculty of letters at Toulouse, entered
political life in 1885 as deputy from the Tarn. He quickly proved
himself to be a great orator. As leader of the Socialist minority
he took part more and more prominently in the discussion of all
great questions of foreign and domestic policy. After founding
the newspaper L'HuTnanitSy he was instrumental in bringing about
the fusion of all the socialistic groups into a unified socialist party.
In the celebrated Dreyfus Case he stood in the front rank of those
who defended and who finally brought about the triumph of truth
and justice. Just before the outbreak of the war he fought against
the three years' military service, offering as a substitute a system
similar to that of the Swiss militia. His views were outlined in
UArmSe nouveUe, which even his adversaries acknowledge to be a
remarkable work. He was assassinated the day before the declara-
tion of war. Every two weeks for ten years he wrote an article
on education for the Revue de renseignement primaire. We are
giving two of these articles, the first that appeared (1905) and one
of the last (1914).
THE SCHOOLMASTER AND SOCIAXISM ^
The schoolmasters, in their remarkable congresses,
are raising themselves more and more above purely
technical questions; or, rather, they are determining
the technique of their teaching according to general
ideas. This was noticeable in their recent congress
on the teaching of history. How could they really
accompHsh the work of educators {i.e., to form and
prepare men and citizens) if they were not occupied
with the conditions in which humanity finds itself
and with the goal toward which humanity is moving?
The educators of the people will accomplish a task
that is really efficient only when their educational
* This is the first article published by Jaur^ in the Revue de Venseigne-
tneni primaire, October 1, 1905.
110
JEAN JAURES III
policy is controlled and animated by a political social
philosophy. Whatever we may say of socialism, it
is a great idea and a great fact. It is a great fact,
for it groups together millions of workers in the entire
world, whose influence on government and society
is constantly growing. It is a great idea, because it
proposes to the intelligence and the conscience an
organization of human relations which would eliminate
misery, ignorance, and dependence, and which, to use
a strong expression of the schoolmen, would cause
humanity to pass from theory into absolute action.
There is, therefore, neither indiscretion nor im-
propriety nor the abusive meddling of a politician in
insisting that the teachers study socialism with ab-
solute freedom and in all sincerity. I should like to
tell briefly why they should accept it and how they
can serve it.
How can they avoid accepting socialism, since mani-
festly it is winning over all minds and consciences
that caste or class interest does not deceive? There
is not a single man today who dares affirm that the
wage system is final. Not only does this system foster
repeated crises of misery and uncertainty, but it lowers
the moral value of men. It is at once a principle of
hate and a principle of passivity. By dividing society
into two classes, the custodians of capital and the great
forces of production on the one hand, and on the other
those who have no other fortune than their hands, it
forces men to an unremitting struggle one against the
other. At present every claim is a conflict, an oc-
casion for suffering and hatred. The strike, a nec-
essary means of defense for wage earners, is a hideous
112 FRENCH EDUCATIONAL IDEALS OF TODAY
weapon which accuses our entire society of barbarism.
That laborers in order to defend their wages should be
obliged to suspend work, to destroy wealth or to arrest
its production, to inflict on themselves, on their wives,
and on their children long privations which embitter
and exasperate them — there can be no more terrible
condemnation of the capitahstic system, which gives
to the claims of justice the form of suffering and hate.
The wage system conduces to a phlegmatic condition.
It reduces countless multitudes to a mechanical method
of production, dictated by a minority who possess the
means of production, thus entailing a double humilia-
tion which should be especially distressing to the educa-
tors of the laborer when they reflect upon the situation.
They see before them on the school benches children
in whom noble and naive sympathies are readily
awakened. The teacher urges them to free themselves
from egoism and hatred, to love their comrades and to
love mankind. He also urges them to shake off all
routine, all sluggishness of mind and will, to think for
themselves and to act freely, according to those rules
of reason and justice which have been verified by their
own consciences. But when they have grown to man-
hood, what use will these children find for their splendid
capacities for human sympathy, moral autonomy, and
intellectual initiative, when as passive tools they are
called to develop vast domains, the exploitation of
which will be directed by some capitalist ; when they
are swallowed up in mines and mills and yards, in all
those vast industrial enterprises of which capital alone
controls the development? It seems to me that for
the teacher who thinks, there is a poignant contrast
JEAN JAURES 113
between the forces of human brotherhood and Hberty,
which he strives to awaken in young consciences, and
the state of harshness and conflict, of hatred and
passivity, in which they will take part tomorrow.
Can it be true? Can this living, limpid water, which
runs and frolics, which is stirred by every breath of
air, by every flash of light, which reflects the laughing
images and the dazzling brightness of life, can it lose
itself tomorrow in the black depths of stagnant servi-
tude, stirred only by eddies of rage ? No ! That is
an intolerable contradiction, and through all these
children's consciences the educator of the people feels
in his own conscience all the wounds, all the iniquities,
all the degradation of this social system of privilege,
exploitation, and conflict. He, too, like the elite of
the proletariat whose children he is training, aspires
to a cooperative society in which capital will be the
property of nation and workers together, in which the
federation of producers will grant all men the right
to assert themselves without violence or hatred, in
which all minds and all moral energies will cooperate
according to their strength in the direction of human
betterment.
In the light of this ideal, the Declaration of the
Rights of Man, which teachers have to teach and ex-
plain, takes on a fuller and more significant meaning.
Liberty? Yes, not a superficial illusion, however,
but liberty realized in the very groundwork and habits
of life — that is to say, in the organization of work.
Equality ? Yes, but not a nominal equality, a mockery.
Property? Yes, but for all, as a universal guarantee
of all individual liberty.
114 FRENCH EDUCATIONAL IDEALS OF TODAY
Is such a cooperative and really free society im-
possible and chimerical? Those who are interested
in preventing its realization pretend that it is; but
it is establishing itself with increasing force in the
minds of men, and it is beginning to be worked out in
practice. Furthermore, there is already a significant
premonition of accomplishment in that most of those
who oppose the socialistic idea no longer contest its
legitimacy and its grandeur, but merely declare it to be
impossible of realization. But how many once absurd
notions are today accomplished facts? If the history
which the schoolmasters teach shows us the slowness
of human evolution, it also shows us that human effort
is not sterile, and that step by step humanity is tending
toward justice.
If teachers will only consider a moment, what a
living example they themselves are of human progress
and what an encouragement to hope! This people
that was so long scornfully and deliberately kept in
the shadows of ignorance, or that received from a poor
lamp the few rays that could filter through the fingers
of the priest, this people has today in every district,
in every ward, in every hamlet, lay teachers, republican
educators, who can transmit to them all the light of
science, all the thought of the Revolution. And the
schoolmasters, in order to give the people liberty, are
beginning to win it for themselves. They are learn-
ing to think freely ; they are demanding for themselves
freedom of speech; they are teaching the State and
the government with its different parties to recognize
this liberty. Oh ! but all this has not been accom-
plished without difficulty or sacrifice. The reaction-
JEAN JAURES 115
aries hate them, lie in wait for them, and denounce
them. They need all their self-control, all their
strength of mind and of conscience, to face the storm
and to stand firm in the face of calumny. But gradu-
ally, by their calm courage, they are establishing
precedents which can never again be ignored.
Even now a profound solidarity exists between the
teachers and the proletariat. The educator of the
people can do much for social emancipation. He is
called upon to transform the conditions of life on the
basis of justice, to replace everywhere exploitation
by right, oppressive hierarchies by cooperation, war
by peace. Educators who contribute to the intellectual
and moral development of this class in humanity and
peace share in the grandeur of their role, because
through it they are stimulated to still greater effort.
In this sense there is a reciprocal education between
the teachers and the proletariat.
Does this mean that the schoolmasters should be-
come preachers of socialism and that they should
bring outside controversies into the school.? That
would be flouting all educational method, since it
would be putting before children mooted questions
which neither their theoretical instruction nor their
experience in life would permit them to solve. It
would not be teaching socialism ; it would be bungling
it and reducing it to a pseudo-catechism in which real
liberty of mind would have no place. But under the
inspiration and enlightenment of socialistic theory,
the teacher can nevertheless serve his ideal. He can
constantly awaken intellectual liberty and curiosity
in the children of the people. He can give them the
116 FRENCH EDUCATIONAL IDEALS OF TODAY
feeling of evolution. In the history of the past which
he teaches them, it is not only the external forms of
government which have been modified ; it is the very
bases of society themselves. From the ancient world
to the feudal world, from the feudal world to the
modern, the form of ownership has changed; yet
always during the heyday of a form of ownership that
particular form has seemed necessary and eternal, and
as constantly a prophet has foreseen new forms, better
adapted to new economic needs, to new demands of
liberty and humanity. To give children the idea of
the perpetual movement of humanity; to deliver
them from the incubus of the routine and the burden
of despair which stifle progress; to educate them so
that later, when an effort toward a higher social life
is proposed, they will not say blindly, "What is the
use.'^ It is impossible," but will examine all new
possibilities of freedom in a fervent spirit — that is a
positive service which the socialist teachers can render
the ideal without inflicting upon the children the
mechanical tyranny of a formula.
THE SENTIMENT OF HUMAN DIGNITY, THE
SOUL OF THE LAY SCHOOL ^
A LAY conception of duty, independent of all religious
support and founded upon the abstract idea of duty,
does not need to be created; it exists. It is not a
mere philosophic doctrine. Since the French Revo-
lution, it has been an established reality, a social fact ;
for the Revolution, when it asserted the rights and the
» From Le Dipeche de Toulouse, June 8, 1892.
JEAN JAURES 117
duties of man, did not place them under the juris-
diction of any dogma. The Revolution did not say
to man, "What dost thou believe?" It said to him,
"Behold what thou art worth, and what thou owest
thy fellows ! " Since then, the human conscience
alone, liberty controlled by a sense of duty, has been
the foundation of the whole social order.
We must learn whether this lay moral instruction,
whether this purely human guide which is the soul
of our institutions, can govern and at the same time
ennoble every individual conscience. We must learn
whether all the citizens of our country, peasants,
working men, tradesmen, producers of every class can
feel what it means to be a man, and feel the ob-
ligation involved therein. The vital function of the
school lies just here.
Since our schools have been fully secularized, they
assail none, but they dispense with every religious
creed. It is not from this or that dogma that they
derive the principles of education. They are accord-
ingly bound to discover and bring to light in the child's
conscience the source of a higher moral life and a rule
of conduct. Moral instruction should therefore be
the first thought of our teachers. . . .
For all our duties, even for seemingly commonplace
duties like cleanliness and sobriety, we should assign
the highest motives, those which best reveal man's
greatness. By this means we can give all children
in our schools a concrete, well-defined feeling of the
ideal. At first sight, it might seem that this is a very
pretentious word to use in connection with our pri-
mary schools, and one decidedly beyond the under-
118 FRENCH EDUCATIONAL IDEALS OF TODAY
standing of childhood; but such is not the case. A
vague, hovering sense of the infinite fills the soul of
every child, and all education should try to give form
to this infinite. The child knows full well, for in-
stance, that he must not lie. He knows that lying is
always wicked, that lying very often is shameful, that
lying is almost never fairly good, and if one never,
never lies, that would be perfection; that would be
the ideal. Likewise if one never gave way to anger,
never indulged in backbiting, never was jealous, never
succumbed to laziness or greed, that too would be the
ideal. I believe it is thus possible to lead the child up
to the idea of absolute moral perfection and of saint-
liness.
And how great would be that humanity in which
all men would respect human dignity in others and in
themselves, in which all men would tell the truth, in
which all would shun injustice and pride, in which all
would respect the work of another, the right of another,
and would resort neither to violence nor to trickery,
nor to fraud ! That would be the perfect society, the
ideal humanity, which all great minds and great
hearts have fostered by the promulgation of the gospel
of duty and submission to that duty, which all men,
even the humblest, the very children also, may bring
about by submission to moral law ; for this humanity
will be formed out of the substance of self-denial and
self-sacrifice.
Thus, not only will the child in our schools under-
stand what the moral ideal is for every human being,
for himself, and for humanity as a whole, but he will
feel that he himself can contribute by uprightness
JEAN JAURES 119
and by daily performance of duty to the realization
of the human ideal. At once his inner life will be
transformed and ennobled, or rather the inner life
will have been created in him.
This is the highest aim within the province of the
primary school.
THE SCHOOL AND LIFE ^
How many keen, stirring, profound thoughts I might
cite in this book of M. Blanguernon !
I quite agree with him that in the school it is nec-
essary to avoid all sectarianism, the formulas of the
future that are too limited, narrow, and inflexible, as
well as the dead and tyrannical formulas of the past.
I agree with him that if life, under the necessity of
taking definite action and of reaching some positive
conclusion, is obliged to formulate a doctrine for its
guidance, the school should first of all provide the
children with a method of working this out, with habits
of observation, of reflection, of independent thinking,
of appreciating the significance of cooperation, that
enthusiastic union of free wills and self-active intelli-
gences which become harmonious by virtue of their
very consonance.
Yes, I accept all that, and I believe I can discern that
M. Blanguernon is not too anxious to see the teachers
venture on the threshold of these burning questions :
internationalism, socialism, syndicalism. For myself
I should detest the educator who attempted to cast
1 One of the last articles published by Jaur^s in the Revue de Venseigne-
ment primaire, April 12, 1914. It is in criticism of M. Blangueraon's book.
Pour VScole vivante ("The Vitalized School").
120 FRENCH EDUCATIONAL IDlEALS OF TODAY
young minds in these fiery molds. But let him be-
ware. He wants children to have a concrete educa-
tion. He wants them to be led into the very presence
of nature and of life. He even wants them to have
awakened in them as far as possible the direct feeling
of the great days of history, of the great conquests
of the people and of democracy, as well as of the great
conquests of science. Thus we see him calling the
children together on the ruins of the old feudal castle
in his neighborhood, and reading to them on the spot
the old charter of the enfranchisement of the town.
But lo ! the spirit of conflict rises from the ruins,
together with the spirit of liberty. For, after all, it is
through a bitter social struggle that the bourgeois of
the towns won from the lords the first charters of
freedom.
Besides, M. Blanguemon does not stop there. He
begins the new year by telling the children through
the lips of the schoolmaster what the schoolmaster is,
why there is a schoolmaster, why the Republic has a
school in the village. How many conflicts he sums
up thereby ! And what battlefields he recalls ! But
why does he not go a step further? For generations
there has been a movement throughout the world,
which equals in grandeur the enfranchisement of the
communes, the Revolution of 1789, the efforts of the
Republic toward laicization, toward reason, and
toward a sound, strong, popular education. It is the
fundamental struggle of the proletariat to become
participants in a transformed society. But let not
the school be drawn into these fiery conflicts ! On the
other hand, when you speak to the children, do not
JEAN JAURES 121
seem to ignore the problem which is present, if I may
say, at the very fireside of their homes, in the brain
and heart of the father, sometimes even in the tender
or restless dream of the mother. Make use of this
bitter reality to inspire the children, to ennoble them.
Tell them, "The higher the social ambitions held by
the working class, the more necessary it is that each
one of its sons even in school prepare himself by work,
by wisdom, by thought, by voluntary discipline, for
those magnificent and difficult destinies."
How could the school be "vitalized" if it ignored
such a great part of life before the children who are
just beginning to think for themselves ?
GEORGES CLEMENCEAU
Georges Clemenceau (1841- ), an eminent French politician,
and now (1919) prime minister, was bom in Vendee. His long and
stormy parliamentary career has been marked by the great number
of ministerial cabinets successively overturned by this formidable
chief of the "Extreme-left Opposition." A publicist of incom-
parable power and fecundity, he has often, but incidentally, treated
educational questions. The article reproduced here will suffice
to give a specimen of the boldness of his conception, of the uncom-
promising character of his judgment, and of the caustic power of
his language.
THE SCHOOLMASTER!
When I read the history of these wretched teachers,
alternately scolded by the prefect for their indifference,
rewarded by the deputy they have served, and reviled
and disgraced by whomever they have opposed, it has
seemed to me that the unfortunate schoolmaster is
truly the most pitiable victim of our glorious Republic.
We have taken a peasant and stuffed him with pre-
mature textbook knowledge, in which clash fearfully
the nonsense of ancient scholasticism, the lies of official
philosophy, and inchoate scientific data which are
lacking in coordination and comprehensiveness. We
have cradled him in a magnificent illusion. We have
told him that he was the ambassador of the Republic
to the denizens of the rural districts, that it was his
mission to enlighten these young understandings, the
inexhaustible reservoir of the energies of the future,
who had been held in ignorance until now, and to
awaken in them ideas of liberty, of cooperation, and
of justice. And then, in the beautiful brand-new
school we have triumphantly installed the dazzled
prophet of the New Word.
* Extract from the daily paper. La Justice^ June 26, 1894.
122
GEORGES CLEMENCEAU 123
"The school is opened," says the inspector, and be-
hold the teacher facing about fifty torn, dirty-faced
little rascals who are dreaming of unnesting black-
birds, stealing apples, or angling for crawfish.
What are they there for? They have not the
slightest idea, and those who sent them have and can
have in this respect but the very vaguest notions. In
life it is useful to know how to read and to count.
This sums up the opinion of the French peasant as
to the cultivation of the mind. As for having an idea
of the intellectual birth in question, that is impossible.
If it were- otherwise, why make instruction ob-
ligatory? At all events, it is obligatory to so slight
an extent that it is negligible. I have seen children
whom the parents considered legitimately excused
from school : one, aged ten, because he was watching
a goat ; another, aged eight, because he was employed
at agricultural labor. In that, as in all other respects,
our Republic is satisfied with appearances. And, in
fact, so long as we refuse to compensate parents who
are too poor to do without the work of the little ones,
we shall find it very difficult to substitute obligatory
intellectual food for the other sort.
However, our schoolmaster is in the presence of his
pupils. How accost these young hard heads? What
spot must he touch to cause to spurt out of them the
desire to understand, the longing to know? This
teaching of the school amounts to very little indeed
when not supplemented, discussed, and developed in
the home by the conversation of the parents. In
the school we have in mind, these are all lacking. The
father is thinking of his farm, the mother of her
124 FRENCH EDUCATIONAL IDEALS OF TODAY
chickens. Nobody, fortunately, pays heed to the
execrable grammar that I should like to bum up.
Ah ! if instead of stupefying the child with the
arduous study of incomprehensible syntax, the master
were to say: "You see that sun, those heavenly
bodies, this earth which carries you away through
space — I am going to tell you their history and show
you your place in the universe.
"I shall tell you of the seasons, of atmospheric
phenomena, of the wind and the rain, which will shortly
overtake you on the road and which you go through
like the sheep in your flock, without asking whence
all these things come. For the first time you will
know the joy of asking yourself and your people about
the phenomena which surround you and strike your
suddenly awakened intelhgence.
"And then we shall talk of this planet where we live,
of its formation, and of its history. Do you see those
blue mountains on the horizon? You will know of
what they are made, and how they came there. I
shall tell you of the ocean and its tides, of the river
which springs from the snowy mountains and throws
itself into the sea, only to return to its source by way
of the clouds. I shall give you the history of the stones
in your fields, and if you find a fossil shell you will
know whence it comes and the story that it tells. I
shall tell you of the animals, their needs, their habits,
their life, both of those animals around you and of
those you have never seen.
"Finally man will be revealed to you. I shall make
you know yourself. I shall show you the bonds that
bind you to everything around you. I shall make
GEORGES CLEMENCEAU 125
you grasp the great law of evolution, from the nascent
cell up to the development of the most intense and
complete life. We shall lead man from his primitive
cavern to the great cities of the world. We shall
know the history of human society, of the ideas and
the sentiments through which it has developed and
progressed. We shall study the customs, laws, and
moral rules which make for the social evolution of the
human race. And in the history of these I shall fix
the history of your race, of your country, in fact your
history. Thus you will have a conception of the world
and of yourself, so far as you are able to grasp it."
I am expecting to be told that such a statement
would be made in vain to a pupil of the primary school.
He hears it, however, not from the schoolmaster,
but from the priest. The priest inculcates in him a
conception of the world acknowledged to be false
scientifically, and in imposing on him consecrated
formulas and in substituting the miracle for science,
seeks to destroy in him all desire for investigation,
for inquiry, and for criticism. To the great questions
which sooner or later man asks himself, it is only the
catechism that replies.
Meanwhile, the teacher, humiliated, confined to his
mechanical function, is teaching spelling and the rule
of the past participle.
True, the questions which the catechism settles
with a word, science demonstrates only after laborious
and painstaking explanations. But let these questions
be analyzed into their elements, treated in rational
order, summed up clearly, and little by little the light
will penetrate the most clouded brain. From the
126 FBENCH EDUCATIONAL IDEALS OF TODAY
moment one begins to study the things the child en-
coimters every day, which are under his eyes and at
his very finger tips, he will suddenly burst out with
questions of all sorts, and the hard shell of indifferent
ignorance will be forever broken.
Doubtless the art of teaching is necessary. The
great educator of the children of the people, Pestalozzi,
has been dead for more than seventy years. What
have we done with his legacy ?
In futile efforts the pitiful ambassador of the Re-
public to the inhabitants of the rural districts consumes
his time and his strength. The parents are inaccessible
to him; the country squires are his enemies. With
the priest there is latent hostility ; with the Cathohc
schools there is open war. The latter have at their
disposal greater resources than the teacher. They
steal his pupils. They crush him in a hundred ways,
sometimes with the connivance of the mayor, usually
with the cooperation of the big influences in the com-
mune. The government, which should defend him
but which often abandons him, is very far away. The
Church, which persecutes him, is very close at hand.
A law eats into his miserable salary on the pretext of
increasing it subsequently. Today's deputy defends
him; tomorrow's sacrifices him. He is spied upon,
hounded, denounced. One word too many, and he is
lost.
A few submit unresistingly; their life is peaceful.
The life of the others is a constant martyrdom.
Thus far I have said nothing of the woman teacher,
against whom the methods of the enemy are even more
formidable. Often she has but one resource : to salve
GEORGES CLEMENCEAU 127
her own conscience in order to obtain the disdainful
tolerance of the Church. Many do not fail in this;
never did one see so many pious exercises in the school
as since the school has been "Godless."
Nevertheless, the intellectual effort is at hand if
only encouraged. There are most precious resources
in this staff of ours, but we should not dehver it to
feed the devouring lions.
Courage, O thou who turnest painfully the hard
furrow ! Thou sowest the first seed of a scanty crop,
but thou makest the seed corn for the great harvest of
the future. And when thou shalt be sleeping the good
sleep of the earth, this effort, continuing to live, will
produce its fruit for humanity.
FERDINAND BUISSON
Ferdinand Buisson (1841- ), agrege in philosophy ; director
of primary education, 1879-1896 ; professor of the science of edu-
cation at the University of Paris, 1896-1906; member of the
Chamber of Deputies for Paris, 1902-1914, and chairman of the
Committee on Education of the Chamber; since 1896 editor-in-
chief of the principal educational journal in France, Manuel gSniral
de Vinstruction jprimaire, founded by Guizot in 1833; official
delegate of the Minister of Public Instruction at the international
expositions at Vienna (1873), Philadelphia (1876), and San Fran-
cisco, and the International Congress on Education at Oakland
(1915), and at the National Education Association meeting, Mil-
waukee (1919) ; editor of the Dictionnaire de PSdagogie; author of
various books ; publicist ; lecturer. Through his association with
Jules Ferry, M. Buisson probably had a larger share in organizing the
present system of primary education in France than any other man.
THE SCHOOLMASTER AS A PIONEER OF
DEMOCRACY — DANGERS OF HIS MISSION*
In the crisis which we are studying, the role that the
French democracy assigns to the schoolmaster is the
only consideration of real, fundamental importance.
It has its burdens ; it has its perils. Public opinion,
however, is not always fully cognizant of these facts.
It is therefore necessary for us to emphasize them.
In the eyes of the world, France is attempting what
some one has called an "unheard-of experiment." She
has pledged herself to establish a new social order
founded upon reason and justice. She has proclaimed
the rights of man, enunciated the principle of universal
liberty, and suppressed all caste privileges. Since
escaping as if by a miracle from all forms of reaction
and starting again on her march with the Third Re-
pubhc, she is building up step by step the new type
* Manttel general, September 28, 1909.
128
FERDINAND BUISSON 129
of society that she conceived — a society in which
each individual will not only encounter no obstacle
but will be sure to receive the support of society in the
free and complete development of his personality.
Wishing to realize this ideal, the Republic needed
to interest the entire nation. In a democracy nothing
is done unless the people wish it, and then only to the
extent that the people wish.
The Republic found a man in each village who was
very close to the people, one possessing the confidence
of the citizens, and enjoying a situation at once modest
and independent, whose profession removed him from
petty local quarrels, but left him capable of exerting
an incalculable influence, through the children upon the
family, and through the family upon the district. It
was natural, it was inevitable, that the Republic in its
propaganda should have made of the schoolmaster its
first national agent, the sower of republican ideas.
Thus the schoolmaster's social r61e evolved, not a
product of faint ambition, nor of vain presumption,
but of the very force of circumstances.
Could he fill it without devoting his whole soul to it ?
What educator could accomplish such a task with in-
difference and inactivity? He must not only love it,
but love it passionately.
That is what happened, one may say, to the body of
lay schoolmasters and schoolmistresses. It has be-
come the army of the Republic.
But do they not run the risk of appearing at times
too full of their subjects, too enamoured of their work,
too impatient, too enthusiastic, these men and women
who by birth, education, and calling are ceaselessly
130 FRENCH EDUCATIONAL ibEALS OF TODAY
impelled to develop the democratic spirit and to imbue
our youth with it? They form a sort of vanguard,
as it were. Yet the task of vanguards is to precede,
sometimes by quite a distance, the body of the army,
to lose sight of it often, sometimes even to alarm it by
too great daring.
It is the second time that such has been the fortune
of the lay teachers. Just after 1848 they were ac-
cused — with what unjust cruelty — of being "reds,"
"socialists," or as the slang of the day expressed it
of being "democ-soc," which sounded a little like
demagogues. The truth is they had welcomed with
a burst of joy the humanitarian promises of the re-
juvenated Republic. When the country, frightened
by the "days of June," became enmeshed again in
political and social reaction, the schoolmasters were
suspects ; their preaching seemed a menace to law and
order; and people were only too ready to replace
them by a personnel which offered very different
guarantees to the conservative spirit.
Certainly the situation is no longer the same. Why ?
Solely because the Republic of today runs no risk of
foundering like the frail improvisation of 1848. But
today, as at that earher date, the teachers are none
the less found in the group of the "extreme left," the
one that alarms the timid.
And how many people there were who at the first
cry of alarm hastened to exhort the teachers to dis-
cretion and moderation !
Leaving all details in the background, two burning
questions preoccupy the public and furnish a pretext
either for apprehension or for calumny.
FERDINAND BUISSON 131
The schoolmasters are accused, at least the youngest
and most enterprising among them are, of having
adopted the program of the radicals, so far as it con-
cerns syndicalism on the one hand, and anti-militarism
on the other. Upon both these points it is easy to
misrepresent their attitude.
Now the teachers have a very simple means of saving
themselves. They merely have to enunciate opinions
that are purely and simply conservative, calling for
the maintenance of the existing status in the civil and
in the military order. But they cannot. Anxious as
they may be to teach as well as they ever taught
respect of law and the cult of the flag, it is no longer
possible for them to confine themselves exclusively
to this teaching and the aspect it formerly assumed.
To the sons of working men and peasants whose
education the Republic confides to them, they are
bound to give a course in civic instruction which will
enable these children to live in the twentieth century
and not in the eighteenth, in a democratic republic
and no longer under a king or an emperor. They are
bound to teach their pupils that the Republic wishes
all men to "be born and to remain free and in rights
equal " ; that it will be neither a blameworthy nor a
chimerical hope on their part to desire to see this ideal
realized ; that this realization depends in great meas-
ure upon themselves; that the political, economic,
and intellectual emancipation of the workers will be
the act of the workers themselves ; that it suflfices for
them to agree, to organize, to teach themselves to apply
the perfectly legal means of political action which
universal suffrage offers them, the syndicate and
132 FRENCH EDUCATIONAL IDEALS OF TODAY
economic cooperation; that to this end there is need
of having recourse neither to rioting, nor to dynamite,
nor to sabotage, nor to any form of violence; and
finally that the lesson of these last years, not only in
France, but in Belgium, Germany, and England,
proves that through association the proletariat can
become a power, capable of treating with other powers
as their peer. All this, they are bound to teach.
Such being the case, they can show only a cordial
sympathy and a fraternal spirit to all efforts toward
organization on the part of the working class.
On the other hand, they can no longer believe that
war is an institution forever necessary and inevitable.
They belong to a people who have always passed for
brave men and who have one of the richest heritages
of military glory that history records, but who also
treasure in their family inheritance the persistent idea
of abolishing war and of substituting for bloody vi-
olence between peoples and between men the rational
law of arbitration. They will not hide from these
French youths that a Frenchman of the twentieth
century dare no longer have the mental attitude of the
soldiers of Louis XIV or of the "growlers" of Na-
poleon. They will not leave the youth ignorant of
the fact that we send statesmen to The Hague to write
line by line with labored pen, but none the less surely,
the charter of a civilization to come, which some day
perhaps will solve by simple and peaceful arbitration
the conflicts that are so tragically and sometimes so
wrongly decided today by the massacre of millions of
men.
On these two points the teacher of 1907 is obliged
FERDINAND BUISSON 133
by his profession to act in sympathy with his time and
his comitry.
M. Leygues used to say that the University (in-
cluding in this generic term all the establishments of
pubhc instruction) should teach democracy and the
Republic. The teacher would fail in this mission if,
through prudence or through fear, he addressed his
pupils in the same language that his predecessors might
have used under Louis Philippe or Napoleon III.
What, then, is the diflSculty ? And why is the school-
master of our time wrestling with practical problems that
his predecessors did not have and that are not known
to the same extent by his colleagues in other countries ?
We have just seen the reason. It is because he is
being asked what has never before been asked of a
teaching body : to teach at the same time for both the
present and the future.
The French schoolmaster is the servant of a republic
and of a democracy that does not insult him by be-
lieving him neutral, indifferent, or skeptical. This
republic, this democracy, wishes him to speak for her,
to act openly for her, to make her understood, to make
her loved, to furnish her with generations of men in-
spired with principles of republican and democratic
faith. He must, therefore, give these new generations
a twofold education, the one they need immediately
and the one that they will doubtless need later, for the
democracy is constantly advancing, and the young
must be able to advance with her. They are not des-
tined to live indefinitely the life of the present, this
transitional moment which is no longer the monarchy
and which is not yet the perfect democracy.
1S4 FRENCH EDUCATIONAL IDEALS OF TODAY
A twofold education, then, for our children when
they become citizens will entail a twofold duty.
Whether they consider national or foreign policy,
social relations or international relations, they will
have constantly to harmonize the vision of the future
with the good of the present, the hope of tomorrow
with the obligation of today.
From the social point of view our pupils can not only
hope for, but they should support vigorously with
their votes and with their united efiPorts a demand for,
a state of affairs more and more in conformity to the
principles of justice. The teacher should inspire in
them the spirit of association and cooperation. Thus
he will arm them against the so-called revolutionary
methods, which can only retard the real economic
revolution, against the revolutionary general strike,
against sabotage, "that affront to the conscience of
work," against illegal and violent action, which is but
one more disorder added to others, — in short, against
all forms of anarchy, which would do more harm to the
democratic and social republic than they would to any
other society.
Where the military question is concerned, we have
the same twofold duty to perform.
That which makes the task of the teacher both
unique and noble is that as he awakens in the souls
of the young people the idea of one of the greatest
advances humanity can make, he will tell them that
the best means of hastening this great reform is to sup-
port with all their energy the country that has con-
ceived this reform and may some day have the honor
of carrying it through triumphantly. Far, then, from
FERDINAND BUISSON 135
lessening the duty these young citizens owe the country,
this outlook can only strengthen it, since it gives them -^
additional reasons for shedding their blood for their
country if such a sacrifice becomes necessary. It
cannot be said that the teacher will not equip his
pupils for the dread struggles that may await them.
Spare him the outrage of asking what he thinks of
anti-patriotism and its disgraceful paradoxes. If he
ever encounters a mind which these miserable sophisms
can influence, he will know how to grapple with them
and crush them, not in the name of a dogma, but
through an energetic appeal to the most natural senti-
ments as well as the most elementary good sense.
Save in such a case, he will not launch out into decla-
mations. True patriotism is like all other virtues;
an honest man does not make a display of it. The
teacher prefers acts to words. The conduct of his
pupils will prove that they know how to serve their
country like men, assuming if necessary all possible
sacrifices. In suggesting this conduct he no longer
appeals to hatred of the foreigner, or love of glory, or
blind chauvinism, or the intoxication of battle. His
pupils will find an equally strong incentive in the clear '
notion of duty and in the vivid feeling of the devotion
they owe to France; for is not serving France the ^
surest way of serving humanity ?
In our estimation such is the deeper meaning of
the "crisis in primary education."
The moment through which modern civilization is
passing imposes upon the teacher two functions, two
tasks, which seem to contradict each other, but which
nevertheless he is expected to perform simultaneously.
136 FRENCH EDUCATIONAL IDEALS OF TODAY
He is a pioneer in all Hie new ideas which are the
very soul of the democracy. Nevertheless he should
keep himself and his pupils from digressions, from ex-
cesses, and from impatience. In speaking to the
young, he should appeal frankly to all the generosity
that youth possesses, to faith in progress, to enthu-
siasm for the good. At the same time he should
dissuade from employing methods that appear the
most expeditious, but which are brusque and brutal.
He should inspire a determination to urge society
forward by reason and not by force.
Commissioned to propagate the spirit of solidarity,
the love of liberty, the thirst for justice, the will to
progress, the schoolmaster should perform his function
as magistrate of civic education while at the same time
binding himself to neutrality in everything that does
not concern the very principles of democracy itself.
He is both a militant and a man of peace. At heart
he is in sjonpathy with the people, yet he must not
teach class hatred. He is the servant of the nation,
and at the same time he is conscious of an inter-
national duty. He says openly, "Have a horror of
\ war !" But he prepares his pupils to be good soldiers,
capable some day of being heroes.
« We readily acknowledge that such a task is less
simple than that of the schoolmaster of a bygone day.
But it is to the honor of the teachers, men and women,
such as the Republic has made them, that one should
consider putting into their hands the moral direction
of a whole people, not determining exactly what is
expected of them, but leaving them to act freely, with
reason for a guide and conscience as judge.
FERDINAND BUISSON 187
Are we not justified in saying that rarely in history
has a bolder, a more delicate and diflScult enterprise
been confided, not to a carefully chosen elite, but to a
corps of more than one hundred thousand persons
taken from the lower strata of the nation ?
As a reward for such labor they have been both
loaded with insults and covered with praise. Those
who know nothing of their action reproach them by
turns with doing too much or with doing too little
for public education, but there is nothing in all this
which need astonish or move them.
May they" remain united; may they remain what
they are, with upright minds anjd warm hearts, simple
without being naive, men of faith without mysticism,
possessed of practical sense without platitudes, en-
thusiasts and realists at once, — in short, primary
teachers ! May they welcome criticism as they con-
tinue their work ! The issue will show them to be right,
and thanks to them, complicated as it may be, the
crisis in primary education will solve itself. They
will have proved the value of the movement by march-
ing forward ; the country will follow.
EDUCATION OF THE WILL^
Ladies and Gentlemen : It is not customary to *
write a closing lecture, and I only decided to prepare
the present one in response to a request made by some
of you who wished, as they told me, to preserve a kind
of memento of the principal ideas which we have been
* Extract from the closing lecture of the course in pedagogy delivered
at the Sorbonne, June 22, 1899. Reprinted from Chapter XVI of the
Report of the United States Commissioner of Education, 1902.
138 FRENCH EDUCATIONAL IDEALS OF TODAY
considering in the present course, and of the peda-
gogical instruction which can be derived from them.
I will endeavor to afford you some satisfaction in this
respect without attempting to disguise from myself
that such a summary as I am compelled to give will
be necessarily abrupt and dry. All that gives ani-
mation to instruction will have disappeared, and only
the skeleton will remain.
The course for the school year (1898-1899) was de-
voted to the education of the will. We concluded the
review of the different domains of the mind by study-
ing that in which all the others meet, and we found that
in the domain of moral action or conduct there are
also three successive stages. Here also we saw that
there spring up spontaneously from the depths of
human nature not moral ideas or sentiments, to be
sure, but certain first feeble desires, which, however
unstable and vacillating they may be, cannot be
treated with contemptuous disregard. Doubtless the
child has no abstract and general idea of justice and
injustice, but it feels an injustice very keenly, which
is one of the earliest ways of understanding or divin-
ing the law of justice. It could not formulate the rule
of equality ; but its cries, tears, and anger show that
it will not endure inequality, at least to its own harm.
These are but feeble and doubtful manifestations of
the moral sense, it is true, but suppose we are con-
fronted by a child in whom they had never appeared.
Would it ever be possible to instill into its mind a
notion of good and evil, if it never had experienced
this confused and vague anticipation of those abstrac-
tions in its own feeUngs, so that it could reason by
FERDINAND BUISSON 139
analogy or perceive by intuition ? The teacher —
and in the child's earliest years the teacher is a woman
— must endeavor to aid these imperceptible beginnings
of an almost instinctive morality. Let this little stem,
hardly visible at first, grow, and await the result. It
is the nascent will, which must not be touched even
to help it start out of the earth. Let the sun, the rain,
the coolness of night, and the nourishing fluids of the
soil and its own sap do the work.
We must not forget that side by side with the in-
stincts which we call good, others which we call bad
develop in the child with equal vigor. In reality
these instincts are neither good nor bad ; they merely
exist like all natural things; they are and struggle
one against the other. It is our work to defend the
weaker against the stronger, the superior emotions
against the mass of coarser feelings, the more delicate
and complex dispositions, the more truly human in-
clinations, against the simple, gross, and blind appe-
tites of pure animality. Here begins the second stage
of moral education, the revelation of effort. To
choose is an effort, but to choose the most diflScult and
least natural of two courses is moral effort which the
child must be taught, and which the grown man him-
self goes on learning and relearning until his last hour.
When does this phase of moral apprenticeship be-
gin .'^ No one can say, for it begins long before the
child can suspect it. The mother says, "You must,"
"You must not," and as if by a miracle makes her
child understand this command before it can speak or
walk. Its will is not yet in action, notwithstanding
that it has been solicited, attracted, and won by a
140 FRENCH EDUCATIONAL Ii:)EALS OF TODAY
thousand seductive persuasions of speech, of smiles,
of plays, of examples to imitate, of caresses and threats,
of love and fear, of mechanical imitation, and of ex-
citation of the nerves, without mentioning the secret
influences of heredity. But as time goes on and the
natural development of its understanding proceeds,
the education of the child should make a direct appeal
to the effort of the will. Good and evil should be
explained and be contrasted with each other. The
schoolmaster who has taken the place of the mother
represents an authority which exacts obedience im-
periously instead of obtaining it by entreaty, surprise,
or persuasion. The idea of duty now appears, and
with it the notion that where there is a will there is a
way. Hence, the necessity of willing. Who is to
will, the master or the pupil ? Both ; but the master's
will tends to prod the pupil's into action, an effect
which is usually attained in one of two ways. One
of these looks for an immediate result which is ap-
parently very satisfactory, and consists in bending
the pupil's will in compliance with the authority of
the master. The other aims at another end, incom-
parably more diiBBcult to accompHsh, and this is to
make the young will comply with a law which it makes
itself and yet respects. This constitutes the wide
difference between the education based on authority
and the hberal education. To act from external com-
pulsion or from inner reason, these are the two opposite
systems of the moral government of the chiM, and
later of the man. There is no need to insist upon our
choice between these two pedagogies and our reasons
for it. But we did endeavor to point out the real
FERDINAND BUISSON 141
character and conditions of that effort to act from inner
conviction which we regard, in common with the moral-
ists of the liberal school, as the masterpiece of the
education of the character. The law which we found
to prevail in the domain of physiology, also holds good
in our psychological history. Effort is an expenditure
of energy. Moral or intellectual effort, as well as
muscular, is an intermittent phenomenon, a tension
of the spring which is followed by a release. It can
be renewed, but the renewal cannot be continued too
long with impunity, for that would injure the machinery
and destroy its elasticity. The teacher, therefore,
must refrain from keeping up the moral tension of the
mind continuously. He should endeavor to remember
that the exercise of the will should consist of a long
series of short, distinct efforts, and not a long, uni-
formly sustained one. If this alternation of work and
rest, of energetic action and relaxation, is necessary
for the adult at all times, how much more necessary
is it to insure these intervals of relaxation for the child,
without which his good disposition itself will become
embittered or even exhausted. To forget that they
must stop short of the beginning of fatigue, and so
prevent wear and tear of the spring, is the danger to
be guarded against by even the best of pedagogues.
There is always a considerable difference between our
own power of application, intellectual or moral, and
that of our children or pupils, which we tend to lessen
at their expense through impatience. Let us learn
patience and, as Rousseau said, learn to lose time in
order to gain it. What will best aid us in this attempt
is a knowledge of the real place of effort in the moral
142 FRENCH EDUCATIONAL IDEALS OF TODAY
life, a knowledge which will teach us not to esteem it
too highly or too low. To this end we must familiarize
ourselves with the new ideas which biology has revealed
to us.
Under the microscope the smallest piece of organic
tissue is seen to contain thousands of cells in juxta-
position which are constantly splitting up, ramifying,
and interminghng. They are the ultimate particles
of hving matter. They constitute a world by them-
selves and yet a world which forms only one living
being. This indescribable multiplicity ends in the
perfect unity of a hving being, and this fact of organic
life is an exact image of the hfe of the mind. It also
is composed of an infinite number of infinitely small
acts : feeble desires which become volitions, the
voHtions becoming will ; reflex actions which gradually
become endowed with consciousness, these conscious
movements ending in voluntary movements ; impulses
and inhibitions whose origin is unknown, but whose
free play finally creates a psychical activity which
has nothing analogous in the rest of the universe.
When we consider all these intermingled series of most
diverse phenomena, which, starting from the lowest
plane of the vegetative life, reach to the highest summit
of the moral life, what imagination can fail to be con-
founded with a network of such extent, such delicate
fragihty, such inextricable complication ?
Now, just as the life of an animal is no longer for
us a simple thing like the word which designates it,
but a living unit composed of millions of living cells,
each imperceptible to us, so the moral life appears to
us as nothing more than the resultant of innumerable
FERDINAND BUISSON 143
acts each of which is insignificant in itself. It is, like
the life of the body, a perpetually changing existence,
which, in the last analysis, resolves itself into a suc-
cession of microscopic elements extending to infinity.
And it is precisely and exclusively with these infinitely
small elements of action that our work as educators
is concerned. To bind the human being and trans-
form him, as it were, by main strength and at once,
according to our will, is something we cannot do. But
to take the young child, a being pliant and plastic,
made of fleeting and changing matter which daily and
hourly acquires new atoms, grains of sand or rather
grains of life, which accumulate and combine with
each other in mysterious and unfathomable elabora-
tion, and intervene in the thousands of fleeting minute
acts by which he gives us hold upon him, this we can
and should do. These are very trifling matters per-
haps some one will say, without perhaps sufficiently
reflecting upon the important part which contingency
plays in human nature and possibly in nature at large.
It is true that each of the little victories over a child
may be nothing in itself. Doubtless the inconstancy
of the child, his versatility and levity, make it seem
as if everything must be begun over and over again.
But is not this plasticity of infancy the very reason
for its education? The endless series of eddies of the
invisible currents that move incessantly in the depths
of the child's being, the insignificance of all these
movements taken separately, and their incessant repe-
tition in unexpected ways, the impossibility of measur-
ing their immediate effect or of calculating their remote
consequences, are not all these considerations the
144 FRENCH EDUCATIONAL IDEALS OF TODAY
surest guaranty, in the practical field, of our free will
and are they not our best reason not to despair of it?
Who can say how so feeble a creature as a child will
turn out upon whom so many thousands of ideas, sen-
sations, and feelings of attraction or repulsion, of
pressure from above and below, must exert their in-
fluence and incite to action during years of slow forma-
tion ?
We must not disdain "the infinitely small" of the
details of school life, and ask contemptuously what
signifies missing one recitation more or less? What
if one lesson be ill learned or one duty be ill done?
What effect can merely one expression of encourage-
ment or one example have, or a single word or gesture,
or a look? These nothings are the dust from which
time makes a solid rock, and they are in the hands
of the teacher who thus, by such infinitesimal degrees,
influences the pupil. The teacher can never, to be
sure, become the master of his pupil's nature irrev-
ocably, but he can have thousands of opportunities
of depositing in the young mind, unnoticed, a seed
which may possibly remain forever inert but which
also may spring up. No one can tell whether a given
insignificant resolve taken by the pupil some day
about some trifling matter of his infantile life may
not be the first term of a series which shall continue
beyond all calculation. What is certain is that there
is no act which does not leave some trace, not one
which may not be the beginning of a habit, not one
which does not have an appreciable weight in the
balance in which are weighed the imponderable ele-
ments of a character and therefore of a destiny. Such
FERDINAND BUISSON 145
considerations are sufficient to impress upon the
teacher both the humiHty and the grandeur of his work.
He labors to form a character as nature builds up a
coral reef. Molecule by molecule, atom by atom, he
elaborates the substance of the moral being. There
is nothing grand in this process except the endless
addition of little to little. The effort of the will is in
the moral life just as much and just as little as the
muscular effort is in the physical life. Child or adult,
what can man do.^ It is with his will as with the
beatings of his heart. Its rhythm is short. The
largest supply of air for respiration lasts but a few
seconds, and the greatest provision of virtue hardly
suffices us to face the smallest crisis, after which we
must take breath and brace ourselves anew for the
next struggle, which, too, will not be the last. And
the superficial observer cries out: "Poor wrestler,
you do not win. Why struggle forever, always getting
up merely to fall again ? "
But this observer is mistaken, and the proof that we
advance a little by each little victory without our
knowing it is that after a time the moment comes
(when, how, why, no one can tell, either for another
or for himself) when effort is found to have ceased.
At least it ceases to be effort but is now a condition,
and this is the third phase of the evolution of the will.
What once cost us so much pain is now ours in peace.
There is now no more bitterness of renunciation, no
more agony of sacrifice, but peaceful calm, soon to be
followed by a sense of deep satisfaction. This con-
dition is like the effect of an acquired velocity whereby
an obstacle is overcome almost without noticing it.
146 FRENCH EDUCATIONAL IDEALS OF TODAY
The first upright act done by a child, the first penny
or the first plaything he finds and returns to its owner,
the first self-imposed privation for the sake of his
fellows, the first spontaneous acknowledgment of a
fault which he might have concealed — each of these
little efforts is an event in his life, and they must be
often repeated in order to become easy and familiar;
but sooner or later they all become so thoroughly a
part of him that he will do, offhand and without think-
ing of it, what at first seemed to him to require great
courage.
Can we say that this final condition is morally in-
ferior to the preceding, on the ground that where there
is no effort there can be no merit? Such a judgment
would betray a very rudimentary conception of merit,
a survival unchanged from the recollections of infancy,
when the hesitating will to do right is stimulated by
maternal ruses. The end of education is good con-
duct. And good conduct does not consist of one act,
but in a series of acts ; it is not a fortunate accident,
but a permanent condition; not the deeds of a day,
but of every day. Do we seek in education a fortunate
accident or a permanent equilibrium.'^ We are forced
to begin by obtaining this equilibrium once for all at a
great price, but the important thing is to give it per-
manence. We must at all cost remove from it the
character of chance, which gives interest to the moral
drama as long as the issue is in doubt. When this is
no longer the case, then has victory come and there,
is no more combat. Interest and effort no longer
concentrate in one act, but are spread over the whole
life, and the whole of life should be our real end.
FERDINAND BUISSON 147
Doubtless the end supposes the means, but how much
it surpasses them ! The habit of virtue in which the
isolated acts of virtue become consolidated is the end
we aim at. Morality without effort is doubtless virtue,
precisely because it raises us to a point where we are no
longer tempted to admire ourselves for having merely
done our duty. We are nearer the ultimate truth of
things and the just evaluation of real merit and the
real dignity of humanity when we can say in all sin-
cerity after a good action, "What I have done is the
most natural thing in the world," than when we say
involuntarily,""! have just done a very fine thing."
The proof of this position is that if I were to con-
gratulate one of my hearers for returning an over-
payment in change at a shop he would feel very much
injured and could never pardon me for doubting him.
The three great theories of moral education may be
reconciled as follows: The optimistic theory of
Rousseau, which teaches us to believe in the natural
goodness of man and seems to propose to recover the
lost paradise of primitive simplicity — the state of
nature — we accept by confining it to the first of our
three periods, the earliest stage of education. The
stoic and Kantian theory, which appeals to effort and
liberty, this we accept for our second stage, which is
the longest and most laborious of all, and we add to it,
besides moral effort properly so called, all the other
forms of physiological and psychological effort and the
different varieties of intellectual effort. Finally, there
is the Christian theory, which lays so much stress upon
the effect of habit, of accepted authority, of established
148 FRENCH EDUCATIONAL IDEALS OF TODAY
practices, and of the external influences which con-
tribute ceaselessly and gently to fashion our will;
this we accept also, but only where its domain seems
legitimate and without risk, namely, in our third stage
of education, in which we have only to maintain through
exercise a condition of training already duly established.
It should be added that as these three states or con-
ditions exist simultaneously in us, the three methods
of education should also be exercised simultaneously
within the limits of the respective domains which we
have assigned to them.
Now to conclude, can we draw any general rules for
the pedagogics of the will from our observations on
the various chapters we have skimmed over? We
can, and the following is a summary of such rules : ~^
(1) Psychology teaches us that the will is not a
special faculty limited to a certain domain and exercis-
ing itself in certain determinate forms, but it is spiritual
force in all its plenitude ; that is to say, in its variety
as well as unity, in the different phases of its develop-
ment, from the rudimentary spontaneity of instinct
up to full and clear self-possession through a conscious
activity which is free and guided by reason. From
this doctrine pedagogy concludes that there is no special
education of the will. All education is an education
of the will or is nothing at all. The will is formed
while learning to think, to feel, and to act. To will
is nothing else than to direct and lead the mind. To
direct the intellect is not merely an affair of logic, but
is a most complex act involving, even though we are
unconscious of it, innumerable elements, affective.
FERDINAND BUISSON 149
representative, and active. To learn to will is to
learn to think and look, to act and react, to control
for a definite purpose an immense apparatus whose
mechanism is unknown to us, but whose movements
we call by the different names of instincts, feelings,
thoughts, and volitions. If the will is the unifying
force which subjects the passions to the reason, the
caprices of the imagination to the laws of thought
and these laws themselves to the supreme law of good-
ness, the teacher does something for the will each
time he gives a correct idea, excites a noble sentiment
or prompts a good act in the pupil, and each time he
contributes to strengthening a good inclination or
weakening a bad one, corrects an inexact thought, or
helps the pupil to a clearer view of some reahty whether
external or internal. It is impossible to will correctly
without knowing what we will and why. It would
be either an empty play of words, or, if attempted
seriously, it would be a sad mistake in education to
undertake to cultivate the will separately by a kind
of artificial selection, and arouse its action alone in
a pupil without regard to the intelligence and the
heart. We do not determine to will for no reason,
but we will because we like and in proportion as we
like. It has often been demonstrated that the will
cannot be reduced to mere desire, but it is neverthe-
less a superior form of desire, which victoriously op-
poses lower desires ; it is a desire founded in reason —
a human desire which silences the merely animal desires.
We readily admit that the will is not merely the cold
and dry operation of the understanding; but that
there can be will without understanding, that we can
150 FRENCH EDUCATIONAL IDEALS OF TODAY
will without thinking, and will well without thinking
well, is what Descartes taught us to deny, and we re-
flected upon his profound remark that "from very
great clearness in the understanding follows a very
strong inclination in the will."
(2) Psychology reveals the will to us under two as-
pects, sometimes as a force of impulsion and again
as an inhibitory force, as if there were two functions,
one stimulative and the other repressive, apparently
opposed to each other. One has the ardor of desire
and the warmth of passion, while the other is the veto
of wisdom, the resistance of reason to the first impulse
that draws us on, and is the result of comparison and
selection — a calculation of consequences.
Pedagogy finds two corresponding aspects in the
education of the will. It aflBrms that it is necessary to
awaken the living forces one after the other, to arouse
the courage and provoke initiative, thus producing
a happy and healthy excitation, which becomes trans-
formed into quick, lively, bold, possibly rash, actions,
but of the kind of rashness which usually succeeds in
youth. And, on the other hand, the young man must
learn to retire within himself for examination and
reflection, to use all his strength of mind to restrain
and contain himself, to be compos sui, a process which
apphes to the feelings, the intellect, and to all forms
of activity, both of body and mind.
These two types of the education of the will are
nearly the pedagogical translation of the double stoical
precept sustine and ahstine, by extending it from the
feelings to all the other states of the mind. Sustine
means : Have courage to suffer pain and endure
FERDINAND BUISSON 151
fatigue, and through this endurance produce and set
in motion the forces which are dormant in you. This
is active and positive effort. Abstine: This denotes
the other form of courage which consists in renouncing
pleasure, refusing what we wish, resisting instinct,
controUing our passions with their sophisms and se-
ductions. This is private and negative effort, and is
perhaps more difficult than the other, at any rate it
is more painful in being prolonged, while the first acts
at once, rapidly and decisively.
(3) Psychology shows us the human will passing
through three phases or stages. First, there is spon-
taneous activity, or the first instinctive movements
of the new-born child; next is the conscious and re-
flective activity, which is manifested through effortj
and finally there is the habitual activity, which is the
synthesis of the two preceding.
A separate pedagogical treatment corresponds to
each one of these three psychical states which would
not be suitable for the other two. To the earliest,
opening, psychical phase of development an expectant
policy is adapted, one, so to speak, of voluntary igno-
rance; a let-alone policy which permits the infant to
do and speak as it wills and expand its powers like a
young, growing plant and as freely as a bird sings.
The sacred stream of life is springing into being and
we ought not to confine it and guide it in artificial rills
from the start. Primum vivere, deinde philosophari.
Let the child have pleasure in life, in the life of its
senses, of its intelligence, and its will to the fullest
extent, and do not rob it of its first and short moments
of joy in living. The worst of all educations is the
152 FRENCH EDUCATIONAL IDEALS OF TODAY
solemn, joyless education. Witb us in France, not-
withstanding that so many controversies exist, there
is no question on this point. The maternal method
has been a constant tradition in our pedagogy, and has
been maintained by all French women who have writ-
ten on pedagogics from Mme. Guizot and Mme. Necker
de Saussure to Mme. Pape-Carpantier and Mme.
Kergomard.
But soon comes the next stage, that of conscious
effort. It is as long as the preceding is brief, and is
the age of ungrateful toil for the teacher. And yet
what splendid contests take place in this twilight of
transition. It is the period when physical, intellectual,
and moral education all concentrate their methods
of action. It is the period when the will is forged
by the blows of effort. To imagine that this period
is a time for easy and pleasant work, for instruction
by play, by short methods of study, by recreations,
by study without mental effort, for mere moralizing
without spiritual struggles, inculcating automatic
morality, as it were, would be to abjure the very pro-
gramme of liberal education and substitute for it some
nondescript training. Therefore our pedagogy will
never insist too strongly on the gymnastics of the will
with which infancy and adolescence are usually filled.
I do not need to recall to your minds the fine passage
of Professor WilHam James, the Harvard psychologist,
in which he says : "There are many ways of measur-
ing the human will, but the most exact and surest
measure is expressed in the question. Of what effort
are you capable?" We subscribed to this opinion.
At the same time we took care not to pass in silence
FERDINAND BUISSON 153
or put in the background the third stage, which is
the crown of the whole edifice. This is the stage of
habit acquired by conscious effort. Thanks to effort
itself, there is no further occasion for effort. Habit
has engendered aptitude, and it is only necessary to
maintain it. It is only a question now of the cultiva-
tion of the feelings, of increasing knowledge, of pro-
tecting our physical, mental, and moral energies from
the decay which comes from want of use. We must
take care not to risk incurring the famous reproach :
"You know how to conquer, but you do not know how
to use victory."
There is only one more remark to make concerning
the correct interpretation of the law of the three stages.
It would be an unfortunate mistake to suppose that
the entire mind passes as a whole from one to the other
of these three phases. We must, on the contrary, take
each of our sensations separately, each of our feelings,
our intellectual faculties, and our moral qualities, and
remember that all follow this course, but unequally,
each with its own velocity and encountering in each
individual a resistance which varies with that indi-
vidual's nature. Not only are there differences be-
tween man and man, but in the same individual there
are the most astonishing inequalities of development
between the diverse faculties. A man may reach a
high degree of intellectual culture whose feelings and
sentiments are still in an embryonic state of develop-
ment. An artist of genius may be a child in character ;
a mathematician may be destitute of aesthetic taste;
a man capable of heroic self-sacrificing actions may yet
be unable to restrain his temper. One man requires
154 FRENCH EDUCATIONAL IDEALS OF TODAY
strong effort to resist a temptation which would not
disturb the equanimity of another. It has been said
that there are among our contemporaries people who
are still in the thirteenth century, and there are waste
places in the depths of the most cultivated minds which
form a singular anachronism with the rest. The much
spoken of harmonious development of the faculties
is only a pious wish, and this is perhaps one of the
principal reasons why we should be tolerant, never
despair of a person utterly, and never despise or hate.
To an eye which could penetrate everything there
would be few souls so saintly as not to have some sinful
stains, and none so defiled as not to have preserved
some spots of divine purity intact. If we cannot ex-
pect grown men to remember the things they have
had no time to hear, let us remember this fact always
in our dealings with children, and instead of being
vexed at the sudden lapses, want of equilibrium, shock-
ing absence of harmony in the little ones, let us rather
study how far each has progressed in the different parts
of his development and rely upon the more advanced
faculties to stimulate the others.
(4) Psychology does not stop at demonstrating to
us the general fact of a transition from instinct to
effort and from effort to habit. It points out the con-
sequences of this transition and shows how this rhythm
is the condition of progress. When we have reached
the state of habit or training in any of the mental
faculties, this higher state becomes the point of de-
parture for a new series. This is because habit has
made us masters of one part of the domain to be con-
quered, which we can make our base for a further
FERDINAND BUISSON 155
effort. If habit had not, as it were, transformed the
moving sands of individual efforts into solid ground
we could never advance. We can say of these fixations
and acquisitions due to exercise what economists say
of capital, that it is accumulated labor and is for that
reason the means of producing new work. Capital
is not created simply for idle enjoyment, but becomes
an implement and works in its turn. In the same way
the moral or physical qualities which we have acquired
are not mere ornaments or a source of satisfaction to
us, but they are means for our doing more and better.
We understand easily today what was unintelligible
yesterday and can consequently apply our thoughts
to new objects, which, in their turn, seem as difficult
now as the others did formerly. Reason triumphs
over passion, and conscience, having become more
delicate, no longer hesitates at junctures in which it
would have been in great straits some time ago. But
will there ever be an end to the struggle? No; the
strife is only carried a little farther on. Conscience
demands more of us because it now sees more clearly
and can no longer content itself so easily. When we
climb the long sloping terraces of a high mountain we
find ourselves higher at every stop, but we also find
that we must start again and climb still higher and
more vigorously.
If this is the way of life, so ought it to be of education.
We must habituate the child to the real view of progress,
the real measure of duty ; duty increases as we mount
upward in life. Progress is not a movement up to a
certain point, but is movement itself. When move-
ment ceases, progress ceases. Let the school, then,
156 FRENCH EDUCATIONAL IDEALS OF TODAY
from its first beginnings, initiate the child to the evo-
lutive and progressive conception of moral life, and
not imprison him within a narrow horizon nor atrophy
in him the sense of progress which is like that of in-
finity. Undoubtedly an immediate object, a clear
and near limit which he can attain, must be pointed
out to the short sight of the child. But it is not nec-
essary to make him beheve that after attaining this
first plane all his work will be done. We must not
kill in him the instinct for something better, but, on
the contrary, we should habituate him to look far ahead,
to put his object always higher, and never let him be-
lieve that he will ever be able to close his account with
his conscience. And in connection with this point of
view, let us take care that certain school methods,
which are excusable, useful, and even necessary, per-
haps, for a time, do not become dangerous from being
continued beyond the period of infancy. We must,
perhaps, provoke and stimulate effort in very young
children by indirect means, by the inducement of a
reward or the fear of the punishment conventionally
attached to such or such an act. All that should dis-
appear with the toys of infancy. If the pupil should
leave the school or lycee with a puerile notion of a very
correct set of moral account books, keeping a debit
and credit account of so many good marks, so many
prizes and occasions of honorable mention, he would
have a most wretchedly mean idea of his duty and
his destiny. The more good one has done the more
remains to do. In this domain there is no end of
learning.
And he alone is a man who, not making Hfe a mere
FERDINAND BUISSON 157
close calculation of interests of longer or shorter range,
allows himself to be carried away toward an ideal by
some inspiration of generosity, without being able to
say exactly what he gains by it, who loves the good
because it is good, the beautiful because it is beautiful,
the true because it is true, without first reckoning
what he will make by it. To live as a man ought, his
heart should beat with all noble emotions, his thoughts
turn to all truths; he should devote his will to all
noble causes. As to the rest he should confide in and
refer all final results to One who is mightier than we,
who has placed all these instincts in our hearts and who
beyond doubt knows whither they will tend. And this
is the spirit which the liberal education should reso-
lutely oppose to the other.
(5) As to springs of action and rewards and penalties,
psychology has some light which pedagogics can profit
by. To attempt to direct the will through a single
one of its powers, to exclude all incentives and prompt-
ings from consideration except rational motives alone,
is to take a part for the whole, or, in other words, it
is to forget that there are several ages in the will, several
degrees of volition, that even the highest degree of the
will is not free from all desire, all instinctive impulse,
interest, or feeling, or, in a word, from all bond between
it and the individual, and that in consequence any one
of our determinations, which is in appearance the
simplest, is never sufficiently so to exclude an admixture
in different proportions of many affective, cognitive,
and active elements. To separate these may be an
exercise to be recommended to lovers of psychical
analysis, but it is the act of the teacher to associate
158 FRENCH EDUCATIONAL IDEALS OF TODAY
them and make them concur in an intimate and almost
indivisible manner in the work of education. We can
never tell how many rivulets contribute to make the
great river of the moral life.
(6) Finally — and this last remark is of importance,
for we must not think that we have nothing to do but
to follow the natural inclinations — what is the essen-
tial and characteristic fact in the will according to
psychology ? The answer is quite simple — self-con-
trol. It consists in what M. Ribot very happily termed
a power of coordination with subordination. Coordina-
tion is not possible unless there is a supreme and single
principle of action to which all others are subordinate ;
each domain of activity supposes a central point to
which everything is referred, a view of the whole which
dominates all details, one end to which everything
tends. Now we cannot disengage this end, this law,
this unity, and isolate it from the chaos of our sen-
sitive life without great difficulty. It requires a strong
effort to accomplish this. And herein the Christian
doctrine of sin is nearer the truth than all the super-
ficial and indulgent forms of optimism which, by declar-
ing that man is good, would save the trouble, it would
seem, of trying to make him good. He is not born
good. Yet he can become so, but only by continuous
effort, which is almost a miracle itself. The mass of
our instinctive and animal inclinations is by far the
largest and heaviest and the most invasive of all. In
order that reason should shed light in this darkness,
overcome the beast in human nature, and make mind
prevail over matter, man's will must consent to choose,
contrary to the natural course of things, what savants
FERDINAND BUISSON 159
call the line of greatest resistance, and choose once,
a hundred times, and always, the most difficult course
of action. It has been said that the simplest criterion
of morality is this: When hesitating between two
courses, choose that which costs you the most sacri-
fice. This is the role of the will acting under the reason,
that is to say, the action of the will at its highest power.
Thus acting, the will converts a mere individual into
a real person. Some one has said that only one man
in a thousand is a person. And it is the peculiar
province of the will to establish this self-mastery, both
of mind and body, and in the mind itself the relative
mastery of emotion by thought and of thought by ac-
tion — relative mastery, we say, and progressive, too,
for our entire life is passed in winning from passion, foot
by foot, a little ground for reason, little triumphs of
duty over interest, and of free will over blind appetite.
This psychological definition inspires, it will be seen,
an entirely new pedagogy. Of course the idea of
obedience, the pivot of the old education, is not abol-
ished, but except in infancy, when ideas cannot be
seized unless visibly presented by living beings, what
should be taught is the obedience of the will to its own
law — moral autonomy. But we ought to have the
courage to tell even children themselves the truth
while teaching them self-control, which at first is mani-
fested by obedience. Then they will come to obey,
little by little, in the same way and for the same rea-
sons that we do. They will learn to obey not force or
custom, or the uncomprehended and inexplicable order
of external authority, but will bend their will, as we
do ours, before the universal will, which announces
160 FRENCH EDUCATIONAL IDEALS OF TODAY
itself, under various names of nearly the same mean-
ing, as reason, duty, truth, or justice.
In finishing this summary — I must beg your pardon,
ladies and gentlemen, for having made it so long and
yet so incomplete — I wish to ask you one question :
Do you think that the doctrines we have been study-
ing together contain the elements of an education of
the will suited to our time and country ? For my own
part I thoroughly believe so, and I beheve further that
this pedagogy, adhering to those doctrines in broad
lines, lies at the foundation of French State education,
from the primary school to the lycees and the uni-
versity faculties. Others have extolled methods of
education which are evidently imposed by distrust of
human nature ; they have required that the child, the
woman, and even the man should be intrusted to them
as needing tutelage. They have promised to exercise
this tutelage for the good of humanity, and they think
they are rendering a service to human nature by pro-
tecting itself against itself, by constituting themselves,
especially through education, the intermediaries be-
tween God and man from the cradle to the grave. We
do not accept this part of perpetual minor for mankind.
We wish to place man as soon as possible in possession
of his own will, his own reason, and his own conscience.
We do not ignore the difficulties or dangers of the task.
But no danger is so great as to surrender one's own
self, and to think and will by proxy.
In accepting the mighty burden of liberty for our-
selves and our pupils, we believe that we are perform-
ing not only a moral and philosophical work, but one
FERDINAND BUISSON 161
profoundly religious as well. As the thinker whom
we have so often met in this course, M. Payot, used to
say : "To have respect for human nature in ourselves
and others is to realize in ourselves and others the
Kingdom of God." We pity those who, being able
to see God only through denominational forms and
traditional ceremonies, do not see Him in our doctrines,
and do not perceive that He is nowhere more present
and more profoundly active than in that humble
sanctuary of education which they call the school with-
out God. We commiserate them for not perceiving
that to bring up children in the constant, careful respect
for their own nature, and a constant effort to rise
toward the good, is to bring them up in the very at-
mosphere of the Divine, to make them breathe the
gospel air and penetrate them with God. Not, in-
deed, with the God of images and formulas, but God
in spirit and in truth. We have, at any rate, the ad-
vantage over our opponents that we take from their
creed whatever of the Divine it contains and respect
it in the highest degree, while they refuse to do the
same with ours.
In all times the reigning religions have spoken of
atheism as the religion of the future. Socrates and
Jesus Christ were charged with no other crime than
atheism. Let us allow ourselves to be called atheists,
then, provided that our education, while awakening
the sacred spark in the souls of our children, continues
to make them adore the things of God instead of the
word alone, and to put each one of them all the days
of his life, face to face, in the secret places of his heart
and conscience, in living contact with the Divine.
E. ANTHOINE
E. Anthoine ( -1886), lycee teacher and academy inspector
at Lille, subsequently general inspector of ^primary instruction.
His notes were published under the title A travers nos icoles,
souvenirs posthumes, 1887. "These extracts," says Jules Lemaltre
in his preface, "are charming in a kind of composition in which
charm is not indispensable and where we are not accustomed to
looking for it." Some of them are models of the art of teaching
in its most difficult phases.
UP AND DOWN THROUGH OUR SCHOOLS »
You have been told, Mademoiselle, that your class
was cold, lifeless, and that you should throw some
animation into it. You have been advised to ask
questions, but just now you are asking too many ques-
tions. Let me appeal to your experience. A little
while ago you asked Marie something, and as she was
slow in answering you passed on to Berthe, then to
Jeanne. As Jeanne did not answer precisely as you
wished, you asked somebody else, and again somebody
else, and you finished by answering the question your-
self. Either the question was too hard, beyond what
your pupils should be expected to know (in which case
it would have been better not to ask it) or else you
should have endeavored to get an answer from the first
pupil you called upon. In any case you should have
given her another chance ; yet you forgot her so com-
pletely that she remained standing the whole time.
Finally I took pity on her, and signaled to her to sit
down. Do not let the question flit about ceaselessly
in every direction ; let it alight ; let it fix itself some-
where for a time. There, for instance, is a slow, lazy
* Notes of an inspector, from Revue pSdagogique, May 15, 1884.
162
E. ANTHOINE 168
mind. Do not abandon it to its apathy ; coax it, urge
it on, ply it with questions, force it to put forth some
effort. Interest the whole class in this effort if you
can; make the whole class take part; but always re-
turn to the original person. The point is to know if
it is he who will be worsted or you. For you will be
the one worsted if you do not succeed in giving him a
clear notion of what you want and of what you want
to teach him.
There are many kinds of questions. Listen to the
teacher givifig an object lesson to a class of little ones.
She stops her exposition, addresses a pupil, and asks
him something he knows, something that she is per-
fectly sure he knows. This is a simple form of ques-
tion. It is merely a manner of breaking into her talk,
of throwing variety into it, of allowing the child to
speak for a moment, in order to take him out of the
passive role which does not suit his lively nature for
any length of time.
With older pupils there is the sudden, brusque ques-
tion in the course of the lesson, which is a means of re-
stimulating their minds, a sort of recall of the atten-
tion, a warning thrown out to the pupil that he should
be constantly on the alert because he is always liable to
be called upon.
After the lesson there is the question by which we
seek to assure ourselves that we have been heard, or
better yet, that we have been understood. "Have I
been clear enough?" we anxiously ask ourselves.
"Have I surely said what I wanted to say just as I
wanted to say it ?" Whoever has not felt this scrupu-
164 FRENCH EDUCATIONAL IDEALS OF TODAY
lousness, this distrust of himself, far more than of his
pupils, is not a good teacher. What is more, he has
no chance of becoming one.
Then there is the question which, after the lesson
has been learned, replaces the recitation today in many
of our good schools. How comfortable the recitation
was for the old-fashioned school teacher ! How will-
ingly he prolonged it ! How gratefully he rested
through it ! He had only to follow absent-mindedly
with one eye, or rather with one ear, a well-known
text, and from time to time to say, or more simply,
without even speaking, to indicate by a sign, "Next !"
Asking questions is not so simple a matter. The
teacher is kept constantly on the alert and in action.
He must choose his question, and weigh its terms. He
must listen to the answer and hold himself always
ready to correct it or preferably to see that it is cor-
rected. But how much greater are the interest and
the advantages ! The question addresses itself to the
pupil's intelligence more than to his memory ; it forces
him to think, to express his thought; it calls his at-
tention to the important points and fixes it upon them,
while relegating whatever is secondary to the back-
ground.
But thus far there has been no mention of the heu-
ristic question, whose object is to make the pupil dis-
cover the truth — the Socratic question, you may call
it. To be quite frank, it seems to me that this term
has been somewhat abused lately. I wonder if many
of those who use it realize exactly what it means.
The subjects to which Socrates applied his method
E. ANTHOINE 166
scarcely resemble the majority of those we treat in
our schools today. Besides, he put into this method
something so unique, so personal, that it becomes
singularly difficult to imitate. We can require learning
and discernment of our teachers, but we can scarcely
require wit ; that would be asking too much. Socratic
questioning, to be conducted properly, calls for a great
deal of wit of a certain kind, very subtle, very flexible,
very deep, and very shrewd. I may add that even
were we capable of adapting it to our purposes, we
should have to look twice before introducing it into the
schools. Those Greeks were great loiterers. You
met them everywhere, in the streets and public gardens,
chatting, discussing, and quibbling. They had ample
time, for slaves did their housework and much of their
other work. As for us, we are always hurried, es-
pecially those of us who attend the primary school.
There life is laborious, exacting, breathless, waiting
for these children, the life which is going to take them
away from school as soon as they are twelve or thir-
teen. Often it takes them before, for their parents
need them and their help to maintain the rude fight
for existence. They have to learn a great deal in a
short time. Instead of making them hunt for truth
by long detours, it is better to give it to them, pro-
vided always that you are positive they understand it
well enough to remember it.
Nevertheless, you can draw inspiration from Socrates
at your discretion, if you wish, some Thursday when
you take your best pupils out for a long walk. They
will cluster around you, seated or half -seated on the
grass near the brook, or under the big tree that shelters
166 FRENCH EDUCATIONAL IDEALS OF TODAY
them from the smi's rays, waiting until they must re-
turn to the village which lies on the horizon. Chat
with them in the manner of the incomparable ancient,
or preferably let them talk first and then direct their
thought with a quiet suggestion. Show them how
easy it is for the mind to go astray. Teach them to
watch themselves, to distrust the impulses of discus-
sion, the seduction of logic pushed to excess, and to
avoid hasty conclusions and arrogant statements.
Teach them to listen to those who do not think as they
do, to try even to enter into their thought, to be truly
intelligent, neither intolerant nor dogmatic. Then, so
far as it depends upon you, you will have "Socratized."
EDMOND BLANGUERNON
Edmond Blanguernon ( ), academy inspector of the
Haute Marne and author of several pedagogical works. The
following pages from the best known of these, Pour Vicole vivante
("The Vitalized School"), show the spirit of the classroom.
ATTRACTIVE PROBLEMS
I HAVE just found a nook of unexpected freshness and
poetry in a country schoolhouse.
It is a corner where ten babies of primer grade, Httle
boys and girls five or six years old, have come together
for an arithmetic lesson. The school has but one
teacher. He has just assigned some work to his ele-
mentary and intermediate classes and is sitting among
his babies. They are absorbed in playing with the
sticks which they use as counters to read, add, and
subtract the numbers which have been written on the
blackboard in advance. The pens of the older pupils
are scratching on the paper. With my elbows on the
teacher's desk I look out over the heads of the ele-
mentary class through the shining window. I see a
hill covered with autumn woods, their violet and red
pierced here and there by the silvery trunk of a birch
tree. At the base of this hill a cool river flows between
narrow banks.
I do not know whether the view from the window in-
spires the teacher as well, but he suddenly begins to
invent interesting, amusing, and lively problems that
have the charm of reality or of a children's tale, and
that reminds me of the Japanese poetry which requires
only a couple of lines to paint a picture and thrill the
reader.
167
168 FRENCH EDUCATIONAL IDEALS OF TODAY
"Andre's mamma" (Andre smiles and his comrades
look at him) "Andre's mamma makes some cheeses.
She makes ten of them." The eyes seem to say:
"That is too many." " Somebody from B ..." (the
next village) "comes and buys four. How many are
left?" The answer is there, triumphant. Of course,
it is fun to count mentally the good cheeses that
Andre's mamma makes, for they are famous through-
out all the countryside.
At the same time the teacher recalls their fickle at-
tention : "There were six beautiful pigeons on the
roof." He said this as though he were admiring the
beautiful pigeons, with their changeable necks and
flapping wings. He stops a minute. Ten pairs of
eyes are watching and laughing. "Somebody made
a noise." "Oh!" exclaim the children. "Three flew
away. How many are left.?" Is not this more than
mental arithmetic? Does it not stimulate all the
imaginative faculties of these little ones in the simple
manner suitable to their age ?
Likewise I note verbatim this third — shall I say
problem? "In a nest, a pretty warbler's nest, there
were five little ones." The imperfect tense announces
the approaching drama, and the raised brows show that
the children are waiting for it. "A horrid hunter took
four of them. How many are left?" When the
answer is found, the teacher adds : "What do you think
of that horrid hunter?" The indignant children can-
not answer quickly enough: "He is wicked. He's a
thief."
There it is, the moral lesson, or rather the moral sug-
gestion, sincere, direct, encountered by chance, which
EDMOND BLANGUERJSrON 169
the program advises us in the primer grade to "com-
bine with all the exercises of the class." All this was
readily, easily, and unpretentiously done, and required
no longer than was necessary to jot down these notes.
I grasped the hand of the unconscious poet, of this
true teacher who loves life and who demonstrates it in
its truth, beauty, and goodness.
What do you imagine I saw in a kindergarten the
other day — yes, in a kindergarten directed by a
woman, who, one would think, should have the mother
instinct and know how to laugh and tell stories? I
saw a fine methodical program of moral teaching
posted up, with this as one of the lesson titles (Yes,
I can read) : "Distinction between the soul and the
body."
A SOUND BODY
I AM watching the girls in the intermediate class write.
What a pretty sight these rows of children make, the
bent heads, the hair waving over slender necks, with
here and there the cheerful note of a ribbon !
No, rather how pathetic they are, these rows of little
girls writing ! Their chests are cramped, narrowed
between the left elbow brought forward upon the desk
and the right elbow glued to the body. Seen from
behind, these thin little bodies are especially distress-
ing. How badly they are seated, drooping over on
the left side, with knees crossed or feet folded back
under the bench ! Between the raised shoulder and
the bad position the spine is bent to one side.
Appeal to the coquetry of your pupils: "You cer-
170 FRENCH EDUCATIONAL IDEALS OF TODAY
tainly will look well in a few years, with a round back
or a crooked shoulder!" They will smile, but they
will remember. Appeal to their self-interest. I do
not know whether they exactly believed me, but their
apprehension was not feigned (You saw it, Madame)
when I announced that I would give instructions to
have the primary inspector note their position during
the writing test, and that this position should count
for as much as the written page.
Make use of moral suggestion. Would it not be
possible for the teacher to tell her little girls in the
simple, serious way that is necessary that they will be
mothers later on, and that they have duties toward
the body that must bear the race? If false modesty
on the part of the parents still stands in the way (I do
not expect you to shock them), I know what troubles
threaten you at times; but once again I bid you to
enjoin unceasingly, with the solicitude that should
characterize every teacher, the practices that preserve
the body of the child. The "vitaHzed school" should
not turn out invalids. These children are at the grow-
ing age, and they are the future mothers, mothers of
the people, who will need strong constitutions.
Just now I mentioned the word "gymnastics." I
should put the subject at the close of a session filled
with written exercises. However great the attention
of the teacher, in a group where his attention is di-
vided, he cannot prevent the pupils from assuming in-
jurious positions, at least now and then. Is it not
advisable, then, to counteract these by gymnastics,
simple movements of the head, limbs, and arms, ex-
ercises for stretching the spine ?
EDMOND BLANGUEKNON 171
The other day I was in an important school which
had an excellent principal and devoted assistants.
But when I asked for information: "Gymnastics?"
"No, Monsieur Tlnspecteur," replied the principal.
"Gymnastics?" The assistants hesitated. Still let
us be just, one of them does give her little girls some
arm movements which seem to amuse them very
much. I should prefer, however, not awkward or
difficult movements, but graceful movements that
are more interesting as exercises.
After all, this would not be extravagant. Do you
not feel the'^air grow heavy in a room where perhaps
not all the children have the most immaculate under-
wear? "Oh ! yes, indeed, Monsieur ITnspecteur," re-
plied the teacher. "We are often obliged to open the
casements." "Then your little girls have been slowly
poisoning themselves for an hour and a quarter. Their
little lungs are breathing infected air. Let us go out
into the yard and have them go through a few breath-
ing exercises. It would be heresy to do it in this close
room." . . . "No, that does not count as recreation.
It is the most beneficial period in your whole school
day. Afterwards allow them to play freely for the
rest of the recreation time."
In another place, in the country this time, I am chat-
ting with the schoolmistress during recreation. I have
just seen some delicate faces, with blue circles under
the eyes. "Do you know what your little girls eat?"
The teacher is not very definite, but she tells me that
in this farming village the little girls are usually obliged
to prepare the family meal on their return from school.
"That is one more reason, Madame, for giving them
172 FRENCH EDUCATIONAL IDEALS OF TODAY
some advice on alimentary hygiene and teaching them
a few simple receipts which will benefit them first of
all. Some day shall I not see a primary school for girls
where they have to set the table and prepare a real
soup?"
You smile, but nevertheless this is more important
than you think. In order that the man, the husband,
the father come home after his work and stay there,
is it not necessary that the home should attract and
hold him.? And will you deny that a bright, clean
house with appetizing and healthful food has some-
thing to do with the spiritual well-being of the family
among these people? I might almost say that these
physical factors are responsible for that well-being.
Let us, therefore, teach our little girls the most useful
of all science — domestic science.
How long, pray, shall we retain our curious disdain
for everything concerning physical culture? Oh, I
know we are becoming *' athletic," but our athletics
have not filtered down to our lower strata. Physical
training, however, affects the training of the mind.
There is not a candidate for the permanent certificate
who does not know Latin proverbs by heart and who
cannot quote consistently from Spencer's aphorisms;
but such acquired intelligence is not enough. In
education we are still dupes of the obvious dignity of
words. Speak of morality, and everybody gives heed,
but mention hygiene, gymnastics, domestic science,
and there is the bugbear of the certificate. We shall
doubtless give heed to these things only when they
take their proper place in the oflficial program as a
part of moral training.
EDMOND BLANGUERNON 17S
A MORNING PRAYER
It is morning, a clear, brisk, breezy morning. The
green of the young wheat shimmers as httle puffs of
wind dive into it. The fresh leaves stand out against
the soft blue background.
In the schoolhouse, the little girls from the village
are scarcely settled at their desks. The freshness and
vitality of the new day are on their cheeks and in their
eyes. Like the sprouting wheat and the budding tree,
they, too, unconsciously await the sun and wind of the
fostering springtime.
"What are you going to give these fresh young
minds this morning. Mademoiselle.'^"
Alas ! the schedule calls for a "politeness" lesson on
behavior at table. First, when should we sit down?
One little girl answers, "When we are hungry." This
reply, however pleasing in its thoughtless and whim-
sical spontaneity, coming perhaps from some little girl
of careless parents, needs to be corrected by a skillful
teacher. How difficult is this fine art of accepting and
rendering children's correct answers productive! An-
other says, "When mother calls you." I consider this
answer very good, for it indicates prompt and natural
obedience to a mother's voice. But I am to be over-
ruled, for the teacher insists upon her own plan, upon
her own answers. What she wanted was, "One goes
to the table at noon," etc. I shall spare you the rest.
How cold and colorless this is, this "politeness" les-
son, to begin, to launch a child's day !
I scan the teacher's notes. It certainly is a question
of "politeness." Just what is politeness? How one
174 FRENCH EDUCATIONAL IDEALS OF TODAY
should sit down, or the position of the knees ? There
is a sermon-like regularity in the outline, whose points
are carefully and methodically subdivided. I am not
in the least hostile to the teaching of decorum ; but can
it not be done easily by paying attention to correct
posture during class? The idea of devoting to any-
thing of the sort twenty whole minutes, a half-hour,
the first and the brightest half -hour of the day !
I cannot help noting other mistakes. Coming into
a roomful of boys at five minutes past eight, hoping to
hear a lesson conducted by the teacher (an excellent
and discerning teacher, moreover), I find a professor
of silence, superintending a written exercise. I am
surprised and ask the reason. The whole class, it
seems, is making a clean copy of the examples they
worked at home last night. I am not discussing the
value of the exercise, but why, pray, should one devote
the first twenty minutes of the day to this mechanical
work of copying.? No, no, take my advice. These
early mornings are too precious to be lost or employed
aimlessly.
"There shall be each day," says the decree of Jan-
uary 18, 1887, concerning the course of study, "a les-
son in the form of a familiar talk, or an appropriate
reading devoted to moral instruction." Let this lesson
begin the day. But let the tone of voice, the look in
the eyes, the communion between teacher and pupils,
make it very much more than a lesson ; let it be a moral
stimulant ! Impress it upon their minds, but do not
feel obliged to close with a formal "recapitulation."
What is worth while is the simplicity and sincerity that
awaken the soul, the gift of an honest mind to children.
EDMOND BLANGUERNON 175
Thus the school expresses itself in no mechanical or
formal manner, but manifests a glowing profession of
faith in the idealism of willing and joyous activity. In
this way the secular school may repeat its "morning
prayer.
ETHICAL LESSONS
I KNOW a school yard, mere contemplation of which
teaches a lesson as effectively as when one considers
its usefulness or the feelings which created it. One
might almost call it a cooperative poem.
It is the yard of a village school. One reaches it
through a long street which, as a matter of fact, is the
public highway, fringed with low houses and narrowed
by the odorous plats of compost in front of each dwell-
ing, browned in the heat of the sun. It seems as if
the whole scene had been designed to intensify the
effect of the school yard.
One comes upon it suddenly at the side of the road
(the school building at the farther end), a fine plot of
ground containing more than four thousand square
feet, and decorated in the center by a bed of bright-
colored flowers. A quaint iron grille separates it from
the road, with its dirty water flowing down to the
brook.
During recreation I told the teacher of my pleasure
and astonishment at seeing so fine an entrance to his
humble school, and I praised the town authorities for
placing the court of honor in front of the "school
palace." The teacher listened with a smile. "If you
had only seen it six years ago!" he said, and little by
little he told me the history of the yard.
176 FRENCH EDUCATIONAL IDEALS OF TODAY
When the teacher arrived in the village, -^fe open
space in front of the combination town hall i^ school-
house was a rough plateau of clay, where one sank up
to one's ankles after the least rain. As a playground
it was both disagreeable and dangerous, and the mud
from the children's shoes kept the classroom con-
stantly dirty. Facing these difficulties, the teacher
determined to put the yard in good condition.
Realizing the hopelessness of securing an appropri-
ation from the town, he appealed to the community.
He asked the people who were repairing roofs or re-
placing old slate roofs with tiles to give him the dis-
carded slate. Soon there were heaps of these flat slates
in the yard, and at each recess master and pupils crushed
them. "We did our * fatigue duty,'" said the master.
And it certainly was exemplary *' fatigue duty."
The rough places were filled in, and the clay was
beaten down. But there was still the rain to be
dreaded. Then it was decided to make a ten-inch
layer of slate and stones, through which the rain now
percolates down to the gutter in the street.
To complete the task, gravel and sand were needed.
Providence (Help thyself and heaven will help thee),
in the form of a colleague in the next district who had
been won over to the secular school, furnished these.
"The railroad over here is being repaired," he in-
formed our pioneer, "and the company is changing its
ballast. You may have this material for nothing, and
the company will thank you for hauling it away."
Having made the children do fatigue duty, the school-
master now called upon the fathers. He "mobilized"
(to use his own expression) five or six farmers; the
EDMOND BLANGUERNON 177
provide~»*^^ial sand was hauled away in carts ; and the
teacher i^ Id with a smile, " The whole thing cost me only
a few treats.*'
The yard finished, he wanted a fence about it. Little
by little a wall was built, and soon the fine grille lifted
its iron lances. This alone cost 150 francs. In the
latter case, however, the town council paid the bill.
"Of course it would be impossible to leave the task
half done," the teacher told them. "I ask you nothing
for acting as secretary to all your unions, but I ask you
to give me a wall and a gate." It took three years to
get them. Now he wants the grille painted a warm
red. He has been voted fifteen francs for paint on
condition that he does the work himself. Having been
a pioneer, he will gladly turn painter.
Is there not poetry in all that.? And has not this
yard been beautified by all the sentiment and the will
power that have been expended on it ? The old houses
whisper, "We gave our slate." The carts on their way
to the fields grind out slowly, "We carried the ballast
from the railroad." The men remember the toast
drunk to the health of the teacher after their work
was finished. The whole village can still see teacher
and children doing "fatigue duty." Everybody in
the village is proud of this yard, which represents the
cooperative work of all. A public school teacher has
built upon it his most enduring lessons.
I know a school where energy and devotion to pro-
fessional duty are practiced and taught without a
word. On the opening day the teacher does not stir
from his chair. He moves slowly and with diflSculty;
178 FRENCH EDUCATIONAL IDEALS OF TODAY
and in spite of all his self-control his lips twitch pain-
fully from time to time. He is suffering from a dis-
located shoulder, a fractured rib, and a sprained
thumb, to say nothing of bruises on his face and body.
A serious bicycle accident four days before the open-
ing of school left him in this pitiable condition. The
doctor prescribed a twenty-day rest. But the idea of
not opening school, of abandoning his class !
This teacher writes his inspector: "The right arm
is in good condition except for the sprained thumb.
I no longer have any fever, and my appetite is good ;
I prefer to take up my work and get my class under
way. If complications appear, I shall ask for the first
leave since I began to teach."
I admire that immensely and I am proud of having
associates of such fiber. What a lesson in spirit and
fortitude this must be for the pupils ! They probably
will never read Bossuet, but what need is there to make
the acquaintance of "the valorous Comte de Fontaines "
carried in his chair to Rocroi.^* Have they not before
them at their school opening the spectacle of a "spirit
that dominates the body it animates"?
ON THE THRESHOLD OF APRIL
The ground in our woods is sprinkled with wild hya-
cinths and periwinkles, with anemones and primroses.
The premature stars of dogwood follow in the wake
of the hazel's golden buds and the silvery tassels of
the willows. Leaves are unfolding. Through showers
and winds, with a feathery cloud on his sunny crest,
March has accomplished his task, like the amiable
EDMOND BLANGUERNON 179
harbinger that he is, and has prepared the way for
spring.
Beautiful springtime, youth of the year, who better
than thou should initiate the minds and the souls of
our young pupils into the joy and the fresh beauty of
the outside world ? During this month and the month
of May, thou shalt be queen of our classroom; thou
shalt smile in the bouquet which we shall daily bring
to our desks. Above all thou shalt be the harmonious
center from which all our tasks shall gladly and spon-
taneously spring. From the smallest children up to
the big boys and girls (our "big people" twelve years
of age), all our pupils will understand and love life
through thee. See, last night I told my children to
pick some hawthorn branches in the hedges this morn-
ing. We begin the morning by examining them and
enjoying their exquisite grace. We sort and name them
according to form, color, and perfume, and the faint
scent pervading the room speaks of thee. In a little
while our big boys and girls will hold in their fingers
petals, and stamens, and calyx, and thou wilt pardon
the analyses of these little scientists. They will even
try to reproduce forms and tints. Do not smile if
their water color is not well done, or their pastel suf-
ficiently transparent.
But the little ones are waiting ; it is the arithmetic
hour. I distributed thy hawthorns to my primer class.
They began by smelling them and are now counting
the petals. And we are going to figure out : "In three
hawthorn blossoms how many petals? With fifteen
petals how many can we (pardon !), how many hawthorn
blossoms can the springtime make?"
180 FRENCH EDUCATIONAL IDEALS OF TODAY
Why should not my older pupils describe the spot
where these blossoms grew at the very moment of the
day when they gathered them, and relate with an
awkward pen, which I wish to keep naive and sin-
cere, the feelings which at that moment thou didst
awaken in them?
And thus, during all these weeks, O spring! thou
shalt be monitor and guide. We have given thy seeds
to the garden; we shall follow their awakening and
their growth under thy breath and sunshine. And we
shall be bold enough to throw open the now gloomy
doors. We shall go out into the open country to listen
to thy lessons. Thou wilt show us plants, insects,
and nests. Thou wilt even sacrifice to our herbaria
plants which we are forced to label "useful" or "harm-
ful," although they all have the beauty of living
things. And there will be poetry, and there will be
science.
In the fields, in the meadows, and in the woods,
thou wilt make us love the fruitful land of France,
where for centuries our fathers have succeeded each
other in the noble task of tilling the soil, the soil which
we are determined to keep for our hands and our hearts
by the passionate attention we devote to it.
O, thou who dost waken the wheat so long asleep
under the frost, who bringest to light the hidden
workings of the seeds, tell us that it would be un-
pardonable if we did not try to arouse the souls of our
little children to this proud symbolism of the victory
over winter, of virile effort and persevering hope !
Make them believe enthusiastically in the life that is
sincere and vibrant.
EDMOND BLANGUERNON 181
Strengthen the instinct to grow and to struggle which
surges up within them ! Give them a feeHng and a
desire for the Hberty of the heavens, for the solid
strength of the earth, for the delicacy of the flowers !
And we shall ask the poets to sing thy praises.
GEORGES LEYGUES
Georges Leygues (1858- ), advocate, publicist, statesman.
Member of the Chamber of Deputies since 1885 ; at various times
minister of public instruction (thrice), minister of the interior,
minister for the colonies, and vice-president of the Chamber of
Deputies.
EDUCATION 1
The most important function of the school is to edu-
cate. Instruction preserves and transmits to man-
kind the treasures of acquired truth. Education
enlightens man's conscience, strengthens his judg-
ment, and tempers his will. To think well, to judge
well, and to be able to govern oneself are worth more
than to know much.
A school which does not educate makes teaching a
mere mechanical process, a calling without social
significance, without dignity, without perspective.
Two systems of education stand facing each other.
One starts with the hypothesis that man's nature is
evil. Hence the necessity of watching over and curb-
ing his natural instincts, of submitting his mind to a
strict discipline, in order to modify and bring it as
near as possible to a preconceived type.
The other starts with the opposite hypothesis, that
man's nature is good. Hence the necessity of facilitat-
ing the development of his natural characteristics and
of directing his impulses instead of repressing them.
The first system teaches man to seek the guiding
principles of his life in accepted precepts, or in the
fiat of an external will ; the other teaches him to seek
these same principles, at his own peril and risk, in
1 L'Scole el la vie, 1904.
182
GEORGES LEYGUES 183
himself, in his conscience, and in his reason. The first
system represses the personality ; the second develops
it. The first system restricts responsibility; the
second extends it. The first system makes disciplined
minds ; the second makes for freedom of thought.
The first system is that which the opponents of the
State teachers have been putting into practice since
the sixteenth century; the second is that of the
philosophers of antiquity, and of men like Montaigne,
Voltaire, Rousseau, and Michelet. It is the system
of the university.
The child is not a passive being, a mass to be molded
at will. His head is not a storehouse where the teacher
may do as he pleases and garner both wheat and chaff.
The child reflects and reasons from the moment he
begins to understand. His criticism is doubtless quite
uncertain, quite vague and irresolute, but it exists.
Do not scorn this awakening judgment ; do not make
the child lose faith in himself. Rather, strive to de-
velop the confidence that the child places in his young
reason and make him feel that you share this con-
fidence.
There is an inner sanctuary in the child which we
must not profane, for it is there that his soul develops,
that the germs which form his individuality are lodged.
Caprice, violence, and fits of temper in children are
very often but an excess of vitality, the overflow of un-
conscious forces which must be directed and regulated,
but not broken.
To devitalize character, to conquer nature, to hu-
miliate the reason — for many years such was the
fundamental principle of education, and it still pre-
184 FRENCH EDUCATIONAL IDEALS OF TODAY
vails in certain schools. This is a false and barbarous
conception. Too strict tutelage leads to deceit, and
constant admonition leads to hypocrisy. All unjust
pressure brought to bear upon the thought or nature
of the child is a blow aimed at his dignity, a crushing
of his individuality, an enfeebling of his spiritual and
moral forces.
This being true, one is moved to ask, "What con-
stitutes a good educator .f^"
The good educator cannot be a theorist, living apart
from the world, a stranger to his generation and his
time. If the educator would influence youth, he must
follow the progress of ideas, the political and social
movements, the aspirations and needs of contemporary
life. Furthermore, he must be conversant with the
immutable educational principles which belong to all
countries and all ages, the influences and effects of
time and environment which act upon the soul of the
child and of the adolescent. In order to quell re-
bellion, to dissipate certain illusions, he must have
been himself capable of feeling them and of suffering
from them.
He must also seek his guiding principles in national
traditions. Each people has its way marked out for
it. Its origin, its genius, its history have made for
it a soUl different from the soul of other peoples. In
education the particular and distinctive character
of each race is most forcibly manifest. Imitation
would mar our natural qualities without making us
acquire new ones. Moreover, it must not be forgotten
that German pedagogy, which has been so often held
up as a model, has borrowed its strongest and most
GEORGES LEYGUES 185
vital features from French pedagogy, from the works
of Jean Jacques Rousseau.
The Greek republics saw in education the only means
of defending their cities against the barbarians within
and the barbarians without, and of protecting them
against the despotism of the tyrants or of the multitude,
for the tyranny of the majority is not less odious than
the tyranny of a single individual.
For us the problem states itself in the same terms :
education is a question of life and death.
A democratic nation is a great community of in-
terests and Responsibilities. It is the duty of the na-
tion to demand for all its citizens a minimum amount
of instruction and freedom of thought, for ignorant
or fanatical masses may constitute the most for-
midable of dangers. Each one is responsible for him-
self ; each one wields through his vote a share of the
public power and is able by his wisdom or his folly
to influence his own destiny and the destiny of others.
It is important, therefore, constantly to increase the
intellectual capital of the nation, to train up citizens
who will be above selfish considerations, to develop
a political sense which will subordinate private in-
terests to the general good, to engender a sense of
duty, and to create great moral forces which are the
sole guarantee against slavery or demagogism.
What is the aim of education ?
The ancient philosophers defined it thus, "To train
the body, form the mind, regulate the manner of living."
Education taken in the highest sense of the word
should, then, be physical, aesthetic, patriotic, civic,
philosophic, and moral.
186 FRENCH EDUCATIONAL IDEALS OF TODAY
I am not speaking here of religious education, for
I am concerned only with the duties of the State.
Now the State teaches no dogma. Religious educa-
tion belongs to the family and the ministers of the
different creeds. If the State teaches no religion, it
should not oppose the practice of any belief or the
exercise of any cult. Freedom of thought, which is
the fundamental principle of the republican State,
is inseparable from liberty of belief. The domain of
the conscience is inviolable. In religious matters,
each one has the right to say that he possesses truth;
but none has the right to impose his faith or his un-
belief upon others. The slightest restraint in this
matter must always arouse the indignation of con-
scientious and noble souls.
Let us not make the mistake, so profitable to our
adversaries, of confounding things which should not
be confounded. Let us avoid even the appearance of
opposing the sincere religious spirit, which is a moral
and philosophic force worthy of all respect, because
we oppose the clerical spirit which has its source
neither in morality nor in faith.
The clerical spirit is common to all countries and all
times. It is common to all religions. There are
Protestant and Jewish clericals, just as there are Catho-
lic clericals. Clericalism is only a reactionary power
at open war with civil society. Between it and religion
there is nothing in common.
Religious neutrality thus understood in no way
attacks the teacher's independence. The teacher
does not renounce any of his rights as a man and a
citizen when he enters the service of the State, but by
GEORGES LEYGUES 187
voluntary submission to a control which enhances
and confirms his authority, "he makes it a duty to
respect in the soul of his pupils the convictions of their
families," ^ and "he accepts as the limit of the rights
of his thought the rights of the child's conscience." ^
^ A. Croiset, USducation morale dans VuniversitS, Introduction.
* Leon Bourgeois, Discours du concours gSneral, 1892.
EMILE DURCKHEIM
Emile Durckheim (1858- ), professor of the science of edu-
cation at the Sorbonne, author of important philosophical works,
one of the most distinguished French sociologists.
THE SCHOOL OF TOMORROW »
It is an indisputable fact that since the beginning of
the war France has gained for herself an incontestable
moral position in the eyes of the world. All peoples,
even Germany herself, render homage to the virtues
she has shown, to the heroism of her troops, to the
grave and calm endurance with which the country has
borne the frightful calamities of a war unparalleled
in history. What does this mean if not that our edu-
cational methods have produced the best effect that
could be expected of them; that our public school
has made men of the children confided to it? The
public school has naturally had the largest share in this
result, since its pupils represent the majority of the
school population. We can, therefore, with perfect
certainty conclude that it has performed its task well.
In no case would there be a question of renouncing
the principles on which its teaching rests; the war
has proved their worth. This is a fact beyond all dis-
cussion, and one which should put a stop to certain
controversies.
But it is very clear that certain significant lessons
are to be drawn from the war. However satisfied
we may be with our work, there is still room to follow
it up and improve it. The terrible experience that
we have been going through for the last sixteen
^ Manuel gHeral de Vinstniction primaire, December 15, 1915.
188
EMILE DURCKHEIM 189
months shows us in what directions we should turn
our efforts.
If France, which on the very eve of the war was
dragging out a chaotic and colorless public life, has
demonstrated this heroism that the world so admires,
it is evidently because she possessed certain unsus-
pected moral forces which slumbered for want of a
definite object to which to devote themselves. The
moment the country was in danger, all individuals
found themselves united in one common aim. In-
stead of clashing and mutually paralyzing one another,
they became united, and by the unity of their action
they accomplished great things. The miraculous
renaissance of which people have talked is reduced
to a very simple psychological phenomenon, which is
nevertheless most creditable and full of promise, for
it bears witness to our vitality and shows what we can
do when we see clearly what we must do. If, there-
fore, we do not wish to fall back into the vagaries
of the past, it is necessary that not only in time of
crisis, but normally and constantly, all efforts be
directed to a single aim, above all religious prejudice
and party formula. This end is not difficult to dis-
cover : It is the moral greatness of France.
Our whole teaching should develop around this idea :
to awaken the corresponding feeling, implant it in all
hearts, and cultivate it as far as possible. Such should
be the chief task of the school. Certainly we are far
from having done nothing in this direction. Our
moral teaching is sound, as experience has proved,
but it is not sufficiently concentrated, and conse-
quently it is somewhat lacking in energy. It must be
190 FRENCH EDUCATIONAL IDEALS OF TODAY
emphasized more, so that it may act vigorously. The
memories left by the terrible trial we are under-
going — memories which should be kept forever in
our minds — will easily furnish the motive.
Not only will this sentiment have the eflFect of unify-
ing action, when it is once fixed in the consciousness,
but it will also be a powerful stimulus for the will.
For some time our moral and national activity has
been growing more and more nonchalant in aspect.
We have devoted ourselves to living quietly and com-
fortably, without responsibility. We have shrunk
from those undertakings which entailed risk and effort.
Now a great people should have ambitions that are
in keeping with its moral forces. It must aim to ac-
complish a task which shall endure, to leave its mark
on the history of humanity. A strong personality
cannot help expressing itself in action. If there is
something morbid in Germany's passion for the colossal
and the unbounded, our satisfaction with mediocrity
is likewise unworthy of a great nation. It is necessary,
then, that all individual purposes should be devoted
to some high ideal which shall wrest them from their
natural indolence, which shall perpetually spur them
on to greater effort. Is not the ideal of which we have
just spoken the best fitted to exert this influence ?
But the war has revealed another serious lack in our
moral development.
Events have proved that our high spirits and natural
good humor have not excluded the spirit of sacrifice
and self-denial. We have seen that the Frenchman
knew how to brave everything and endure everything
for a great cause, but we have had to recognize that
EMILE DURCKHEBI 191
he did not have the spirit of discipline in the same
degree. We do not know as well as our enemies how
to regulate our movements or those of others, how to
act together and obey a common law. We are all too
much inclined to follow our own judgment. Certainly
there could be no question of borrowing from Germany
her massive and automatic discipline, which presupposes
in those who submit to it a passivity of which we are
incapable. Nevertheless, the fact remains that respect
for the law is the condition of all action in common.
There is no doubt but that this sentiment has been
weakened in France, where the very idea of moral au-
thority, the basis of all solid discipline, has been vigor-
ously attacked. One of our best educators, one of the
noblest souls of this epoch, declared a few years ago
that the notion of authority, of obligation, of the
regulation which one respects because it commands,
is archaic and contradicts the very principles of de-
mocracy. And, indeed, since democracy has for its
main object the awakening and developing of the sense
of personal autonomy, and since autonomy and au-
thority are wrongly considered incompatible, it seems
very natural that democracy should imply and bring
about a weakening of the respect for authority. Thus
there has come about a weakening of discipline in
school as well as in society.
The school of tomorrow must abandon this grave
error. It is necessary to have respect for legitimate
authority, that is to say, for moral authority, to in-
culcate in the child the religion of law, and to teach
him the joy of acting in concert with others according
to an impersonal, universal law. It is necessary that
192 FRENCH EDUCATIONAL IDEALS OF TODAY
the school discipline appear to the children as a just
and sacred thing, the basis of their happiness and moral
health. Thus as men they will accept spontaneously
and with open eyes the social discipline which cannot
be undermined without endangering the whole social
fabric.
AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES
During the school year 1911-1912 the Manuel gSnSral de Vinstmo-
Hon primaire announced a contest on "the situation and the r6le
of the teacher in modern society." Each competitor was asked
"not for a dissertation, but for a picture of his real life, both
material and spiritual, a sincere statement of his aspirations, —
in short, for the way he understood the great educative task in-
trusted to him by the Republic."
The extracts that follow are taken verbatim from the several
hundred answers that reached the Manuel ginSral. The names
api>ended are the names of the provinces whence the letters came.
The village I have just come to has 350 inhabitants ;
it is lost in the middle of a vast plain. From a dis-
tance, at this time of the year, one can barely dis-
tinguish it from the plain, so low and dull are its houses
under the gray sky. I feel terribly alone this evening,
among all these strangers who a little while ago watched
me pass by, standing envious and open-mouthed on
their thresholds. I am taking the place of an old
schoolmistress they have had for twenty years. I am
young, and my hat is in this year's fashion. I do not
inspire confidence. Things are gray within me as
well as around me, but the sadness comes from without.
At the bottom of my heart all is hope. Although this
community is complete solitude, at the same time the
way is open to the opportunities and the responsi-
bilities I have so earnestly desired.
March, 1897. 1 like my pupils ; I believe we shall
get on well together. While they certainly have not
the keen intelligence of city children, on the other
hand they seem much more thoughtful and perhaps
more thoroughly sincere. They are picturesque and
pathetic. Oh ! those ruddy faces, those candid eyes,
193
194 FRENCH EDUCATIONAL IDEALS OF TODAY
those dresses cut from the old petticoats of the grand-
mothers !
Seine-et-Oise
October, 1899, I have been appointed to a village
forty miles from my family. My chief is an old, sweet-
faced sister still in the service in spite of the laicization
of the department. She received me with a great
deal of cordiality and animation, looked at me from
behind her spectacles, and declared, "We shall get
on well together, I can see that."
Sister Melanie, her companion, is faded and as color-
less as a tapestry figure.
My room, a closet about as big as a handkerchief,
is hung in blue paper covered with birds chasing each
other. My classroom is long and narrow, very low,
with a worm-eaten, shaky door which opens out on a
sunken path. The desks are old and shaky, too, but
my enthusiasm is great, and my aspirations are bound-
less.
Monday. I have eighty-five pupils. Later on others
will be coming along, who are now picking potatoes.
I feel bewildered in the face of this crowd of little
people. I have passed the day organizing my classes
and getting things under way. The principal came
into my classroom this morning, made the sign of the
cross, and all the pupils chanted prayers for a half-
hour. What could one do? And this morning Sister
Melanie, coming in stealthily, took a seat at the farther
end of my classroom, gave me a friendly little nod,
and started the little ones on syllable exercises. Now
I understand the words of the academy inspector
AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES 195
when he gave me this "position of responsibility,"
"You will need patience and tact, Mademoiselle."
Haute-Vienne
I am the only teacher in a little village near Lyons.
Rising at six in the morning, I put my little home in
order. I have a clean, attractive apartment which
the municipality has fitted out above the classroom.
There are four bright, airy rooms, with fireplaces,
running water in the kitchen sink, and electricity
everywhere. In short, I have all the modern con-
veniences, as well as a new school that looks like a
little villa, with beds of roses on either side of the en-
trance door and flowering shrubs around the play-
ground. ^ „
Rhone
The classroom is decorated with fine engravings.
The light sifts through the thin curtains in the big
bay window. It is a pleasure to be here. "We are
better off here than at our home," say the children.
What progress ! Formerly the schoolhouse was a mere
hovel on the other side of the river, and all the village
children had to cross in a boat. The classroom was
not different from a stable, except that there was no
straw and that it contained a few stools. The old men
of the village never tire of citing the difference between
their shelter, so primitive and dull, and the new school,
so bright and hospitable.
AiN
I earn 2100 francs,^ — salary 1800 francs, town
clerkship 300 francs. I am given a heated apartment ;
» $420. Roughly speaking, there are five francs to the dollar.
196 FRENCH EDUCATIONAL IDEALS OF TODAY
I have a garden of eight hundred square yards, and
an experiment field of one hundred square yards,
where I raise more than enough vegetables and fruit
for my family. I even give away a certain amount
to poor neighbors, who in return come from time to
time to help me in my gardening. We raise rabbits
and poultry, chiefly on the products of the garden and
the experiment field. Our chickens supply us with
eggs practically the year round, and we even sell some
when the supply exceeds our needs. At present we
make our own bread.
NiEVRE
My financial situation would be precarious enough
if I were not secretary of the town council and treasurer
of the savings bank. At forty-one years of age, with
a salary of 1800 francs, I am grouped in the teachers
of the third class. ^ I have four children, and truly
we should be in misery but for my outsrde work. In
fact, the teacher is a government employee who cannot
earn his living at teaching. He is obliged to resort
to other work in order to keep his family ahve.
Sarthe
If the picture of my financial situation shows dark
shadows, I can say frankly that my whole moral situa-
tion is lighted up by the calm joy that the practice of
my profession brings.
Oh ! the sovereign charm of the classroom ! What
poet teacher, enamored of his work, can tell us of the
compelHng interest in the lesson that makes the eyes
^ The third class is composed of teachers who have passed at least ten
years in the service of the State.
AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES 197
of the pupil shine and his face light up, which concen-
trates the attention of all on the subject in hand, which
awakens and sharpens the mind, illumines the elements
of knowledge, and opens the way toward divine
splendors !
Who can tell us of the joyous mental activity when
one tries to select from the subject matter those parts
that are the most vital and at the same time the richest,
those which the child's mind seeks out instinctively,
which it receives with a secret satisfaction, those ideas
which will at once form and nourish the mind? Who
does not understand the joy of the teacher who watches
the upward flight of a young soul, who feels it vibrate
in contact with truth, and echo in pure, crystalline
notes the sublime accents of the great poets ; who sees
this soul finally become conscious of itself and of its
aspirations, and grow toward the ideal of justice,
beauty, and kindness?
But who will not also understand the bitterness of
my regret, when, after the work of the town council
has been too heavy or the night tasks too tedious,
morning finds me insufficiently prepared; when my
weary brain cannot recover its poise ; when it can no
longer stimulate the children; when the class droops
and goes to sleep in the close, heavy atmosphere ?
Bad days, these, both for teacher and pupils ! At
such times I feel the weight of this outside work, which
I am nevertheless obliged to carry, since it is my means
of livelihood. c,
Sarthe
Lost in the country, I felt so alone and so inex-
perienced that a great sadness filled my heart. After
198 FRENCH EDUCATIONAL IDEALS OF TODAY
school hours, what a frightful feeling of loneliness came
over me, in comparison with the joyous gayety of the
normal school ! Pabis
In the eyes of the peasant and the working man the
teacher, correctly dressed and decently lodged, is a
lady, almost an aristocrat. It should surely be a
simple matter to keep children in a brilhantly lighted,
well-ventilated room that is heated in winter and kept
cool in summer ! To have one rest day a week besides
Sunday, to have holidays at Christmas and Easter
and two long months of Hberty in August and September
— is not that an enviable existence ? So a latent but
real jealousy springs up among these workers, who have
no idea of the exhausting labors of the school teachers.
Rhone
This is a country of large landholders. The town
provides my lodging, and my property is not negotiable :
woods that thrive under the open sky, meadows where
the grass touches the knees of the cattle, red-soil lands
where the crops form green rivers. I have no metayers
to call me "our gentleman," as in the olden times.
I am from far away, and that is a great objection.
My mother came to see us. Her coif was not like
those in this part of the country. These are important
matters, things that help establish a reputation.
Finally I have no horse and carriage, and since I read
late into the night I am judged eccentric.
ViENNE
We must please everybody, and especially the good
electors of Monsieur the Mayor; if not, look out for
AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES 199
trouble ! Please everybody, but how, especially when
politics are involved ?
Monsieur the Mayor comes into the school as if it
were his own house, or rather as if it were a barn, to
drag the teacher off to the town hall, while the pupils
dance in the classroom. Another day he sends the
teacher to the next hamlet for an entire afternoon in
order to help the tax collector, who is allotting the fire-
wood in the forest. Meanwhile the children, who
have been set at liberty, gambol in the village streets,
in the fields, or in the woods.
A small farmer said to me one day in speaking of
his son, *'I should like to make a teacher out of him
but for the fact that he would have to be everybody's
The task is hard for us teachers in the Vendean
country, where the priest and the squire are in league
against us and our teaching. Think of being awakened
with a start in the night by abusive noises made under
your windows according to orders, of reading each
morning on your door odious anonymous posters pasted
there during your sleep. In the classroom itself you
encounter the ill-will of the children, their apathy,
and their indolence. Are you obliged to scold for
careless work, for a lesson half learned, for vulgar
language? The child sneers and says half aloud,
"I will go over to the good sisters."
Vendee
From the moment of my arrival at B , I turned
my attention to making myself popular with the
200 FRENCH EDUCATIONAL IDEALS OF TODAY
children and to winning the hearts of the mothers.
The population sought to make things hard for me.
I was spied upon, and the children were questioned
to see if I had not been guilty of intolerance. The
cure organized the campaign. He gave orders to
close the doors in my face when I made my first round
of visits. He used every means to make life unbear-
able for me and to keep me shut up at home. But I
was not long in gaining a real influence over this com-
munity, and ever since I have been guarding it as a
treasure. Established as it is in the popular confidence,
my school is, so to speak, invulnerable. The violent
attacks on the "schoolbooks" slipped by unnoticed.
Not a single mother listened to the belligerent sug-
gestions so freely made.
Mayenne
Should the teacher take part in the fife of his en-
vironment ?
"No," says one. K there are advantages for the
teacher in mingling in the social life about him, there
are also disadvantages. It is more worth while, I
believe, to observe what is going on and to be above
public opinion. One might go further and maintain
that the true educator should be before all else a man
whose public life is spent almost entirely in his class-
room, a man who confines himself to bringing into his
classroom the modest virtues of family life.
Rhone
"Yes," say many others. "We are the educators
of the people, and as such we should fire the people
with the desire for progress. How do you expect us
AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES 201
to lead the masses if we are not constantly in contact
with them, if we do not live their life, if we do not
form one body with them?"
NiEVBE
After twenty years I am in sympathy with my en-
vironment, and it is a great blessing. I have become
attached to this land where my children were born.
I know it; I know its inhabitants, their character,
their habits, their good qualities, their shortcomings.
I was never foolish enough to criticize indiscriminately
what they did, but now I have come to understand
them, to divine the deep reasons which have left an
impression on their lives and beliefs. They have never
seen in me a mark of disdain or ridicule. On the con-
trary, they have always been able to feel my real and
active sympathy for their needs.
Sarthe
While adding a small sum to his slender income, the
schoolmaster who serves as town clerk unquestionably
increases his prestige in the community. Though he
be ever so little conversant with his duties, he never-
theless quickly becomes indispensable to the village,
and the mayor and the other inhabitants of the lo-
cality consult him daily.
Lot-et-Garonne
One teacher founded consecutively a savings bank,
a school lunchroom, a school pharmacy, a museum,
a library, a society for the prevention of cruelty to
animals, a temperance society, an alumni association,
a loan fund for farmers, a farmers' syndicate, a mutual
202 FRENCH EDUCATIONAL IDEALS OF TODAY
fire-insurance society, and a cattle-insurance society.
Another teacher is the confidant of the peasants.
The peasant, surrounded by sharpers who prey
upon his weakness and ignorance, is glad to have some-
body in whom to confide. He becomes devoted body
and soul to the schoolmaster who can win his affection.
He makes the schoolmaster his counselor, his secretary,
his confidant. Of all the compensations in my career,
this was one of the greatest and most satisfactory.
The good teacher has nothing to fear from pupils or
parents; on the contrary, he derives his strength
from them.
CORBEZE
Another teacher devised an ingenious means of in-
creasing the attendance. Thanks to his insistence, a
binder-reaper was purchased, and immediately the
children's absences became less protracted. Next
he showed them how it is possible to inclose the pas-
tures with artificial briers at no great expense. The
cattle then need no tending, and the children are free
to go to school. This very simple idea shortly met
with immense success and gave results that could
not have been brought about by dozens of ministerial
circulars.
CORREZE
If we wish to reform the present way of living and
insure progress, the example must come from some-
where; and where should it come from if not from
the educators.? To present ideals of work, of the
simple life, of earnest devotion, especially to country
people — this task constitutes our principal social role.
AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES 203
At Montauban the country folk came to visit my
garden and experiment field, and tried afterwards
to do better than I. Now there is great competition
in the village to see who will have the finest garden.
My pupils naturally take a hand, for we do our culti-
vating together. This year we had the largest yield
of wheat in the commune (32 hectoliters per hectare),
and I am prouder of the result than if my pupils had
won a big success at gaining their primary-school
certificates after "digging" for two months. A rich
landholder furnishes us the fertilizer gratuitously, and
the laborer^ in the neighborhood come to work in our
experiment field, likewise gratuitously.
NiEVRE
L , an agricultural canton, is dying of misery
and despair. A series of calamities — drought, hail,
aphthous fever, rot, general market stagnation and
lowering of prices — has brought about, first, financial
embarrassment and discouragement, and then an
exodus toward the city. In the short space of fifteen
years, the population dropped from 13,886 to 10,084
inhabitants. One man, by untiring tenacity and a
convincing faith, inspired the people with courage,
transformed the production, restored the feeling of
security, and stopped emigration by creating a farmers'
syndicate and its allied organizations and by organizing
a cattle-insurance society.
G , a vineyard center, was vegetating, ruined
thirty years ago by phylloxera, and subsequently
aflSicted by pyralis, cochylis, and other non-parasitic
diseases. One year there would be an over-production.
204 FRENCH EDUCATIONAL IDEALS OF TODAY
with wine selling at $2.00 per hectoliter (22 gallons) ;
the next year the crop would be an utter failure. The
establishment of a nursery for grafted plants, lectures
on their adaptation, the practice of soil analysis, the
creation of a local loan fund and a cooperative cellar,
the purchase of burners and pulverizers by the com-
mune, have operated to increase production, regulate
prices, restore confidence, and retain the population
of vine growers.
M , a small town, contains many needy house-
holds. People complain of the cost of living and the
bad quality of provisions. A cooperative movement
has been organized and developed to such an extent
that in a couple of years seven hundred homes are
cooperating and the total business transacted reaches
a million francs. Bread is sold at three centimes
below the municipal rate, other products are sold
proportionately cheap, although of irreproachable
quality. The different organizations supplement each
other, and at the expiration of each term a bonus of
eight to ten per cent is given to the members. This
sum is very welcome, for it represents the greater part
of the rent.
We could multiply examples, citing the model
orchards at Ch and at P , the mutual fire-in-
surance company at C , but our explanation would
invariably be the same. At L , at G , at M
the man to whom we allude is the teacher. There are,
indeed, few townships which have not one or more
flourishing societies for which the initiative, activity,
and continued devotion of the teacher alone are re-
sponsible. Let us note, therefore, without pride but
AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES 205
at the same time without foolish modesty, the part
which this unobtrusive government employee takes
in the work of social renovation, which is going on
under our eyes and which tends more and more to
replace narrow individualism by the principle of unity
and the spirit of cooperation.
Sa6ne-et-Loire
It is my ambition to live in the children's memory.
I should like to make their school days the sweetest
time of their lives, a time which they could not think
of without emotion. We do not deny that life is hard
and painful for certain people. When we think of the
various trials and difficulties which we have met and
which others must face, why should we not give them
the only thing that it is in our power to give — an
education that satisfies them, and is at the same time
sound and capable of preparing them for all duties
whatever they may be, an education whose beneficent
influence will follow and sustain them ?
Var
The children have the feeling that I am giving them
something of myself, and I am glad of it. When I see
their eyes fixed on mine ; when I feel their little hands
touching my dress, resting on my knees, holding out
to me a faded flower plucked by the wayside; when
a mother I meet says, "Mademoiselle, I am so happy
that my child is making progress," I cannot express
the secret joy I feel, so sweet that it drives away the
memory of the little daily annoyances.
X
N. BIZET
N. Bizet ( -1909), director of the municipal school, rue de la
Boulard, Paris.
THE TEACHER AND THE ADOLESCENT
The schoolmaster derives considerable personal ad-
vantage from the " counselorships " that are every-
where becoming prevalent. The necessity of helping
young people pursue their intellectual development
forces him to study the great questions of the day,
and demands his effort in research and in special work
which he might not otherwise undertake. Even simple
conversation with growing boys and young men, each
one of whom has specialized in a certain branch of
human activity, however modest it may be, cannot
help being extremely profitable to a mind that is keen
and alert. When the teacher is continually coming
in contact with those who are grappling with the actual
difficulties of life, he can get a clearer and more exact
view of the real needs of childhood and the direction
the education of his pupils should take.
In the children confided to him the teacher has a
vision of youths who will later come of their own ac-
cord and appeal to his kindness and experience, the
young men of the future who for a long time to come
will continue to gather about him. Such a perspective
has a most salutary influence upon all concerned.
Master and pupils grow nearer one another, constraint
disappears, school discipline becomes more paternal,
more indulgent, more largely human, without, how-
ever, ceasing to be firm. School authority assumes a
special character before unsuspected, because the
206
N. BIZET 207
master feels the necessity of guaranteeing its eflBciency
against the day close at hand, when, though freed
from all obligation toward him, his former pupils will
come and place themselves voluntarily under his
guardianship. He knows that they will seek this
guardianship only on condition that they have them-
selves learned to appreciate its beneficent influence.
In a word, the school is thus able to carry out the
program expressed in the term, "a liberal education."
The schoolmaster derives inestimable moral and in-
tellectual advantages from his participation in this
sort of work. Each day he becomes more truly a man
and an educator. In contact with these imspoiled
young people of the lower classes, so susceptible to
generous sentiments, so full of good faith and of candor
(even in our Paris, so unjustly brought into disrepute),
he feels his heart grow warm and rejuvenated.
GABRIEL SEAILLES
Gabriel Seailles (1852- ), chevalier of the Legion of Honor,
oflBcer of Public Instruction, professor of philosophy at the Uni-
versity of Paris. Agrege in philosophy, teacher in provincial and
Paris lycees, professor at the Sorbonne since 1898. Author of
various works on philosophy, art, biography, and education.
THE REAL MEANING OF NON-SECTARIANISM ^
I CANNOT tell you how glad I am that by virtue of his
very functions the schoolmaster cannot be one of those
sectarians who only know how to ridicule the beliefs
of others ; that his most imperative duty is to destroy
error and superstition by substituting truths which
make these impossible. Thus by avoiding all criticism
and controversy, by holding to those proofs of science
and the conscience which deny only those things we
can no longer believe sincerely, the schoolmaster is
master of the future. The neutrality of the school-
master is not cold indifference, which would result in
a narrow type of instruction bereft of educative value,
and deprive him of all feeling of usefulness as well as
the courage necessary to face his hard task. The school
is neutral in the sense that it is not negative, or ag-
gressive, or more engrossed in combating error than in
building up truth, neutral also in the peculiar sense
that it devotes its attention to what unites men rather
than to what divides them. If the school opposes
falsehood, fetichism, and intolerance, it does so solely
by imbuing the mind with moral truths which no one
dares question openly, even though he be only waiting
the opportunity and the power to violate them.
^ From Education ou rivolution.
208
GABRIEL SEAILLES 209
The non-sectarian school is not an accident, an
artificial creation without root in the past. On the
contrary, it is logically historical, and it is in line with
the progress of science and the human conscience.
Since the sixteenth century, by the application of pos-
itive methods, theology has been replaced by a non-
sectarian science which is verified and justified by the
greater control it gives man over nature. Since the
Revolution, national unity no longer rests upon sec-
tarian unity, and this implies that civil society finds in
itself, in its own conscience, if I may use the word, the
principles \diich permit it to organize and to main-
tain itself. Thus, little by little, the new idea becomes
clear that society is sufficient unto itself, that it has
its own meaning and values, that it offers to the ac-
tivity of men an ideal which has real worth and which
can harmonize the intelligence and the will, whatever
may be the religious or metaphysical belief. In fact,
the idea becomes clear that society, by whose means
alone man truly finds himself, is capable of giving and
is obliged to give its members an education whose
elements are based upon its own requirements and its
own aspirations.
The pedagogy of the school is a liberal pedagogy,
full of the past, pregnant with the future. Truth is
no longer diffused and transmitted by being imposed,
but rather by being proposed. It is definitely acquired
only when it creates itself anew by question and exam-
ination, when it identifies itself with the intelligence
in which it becomes a vital force, so that it may go far
in the search for truth.
210 FRENCH EDUCATIONAL IDEALS OF TODAY
A necessary element of social life and one limited in
its ambition, this education does not regard things
from the point of view of the eternal. If the Church,
as Fichte has said, "is a school destined to train cit-
izens for Heaven," our non-sectarian school more
modestly wants but to train citizens for this world.
Far from preaching contempt for the present life, it
endeavors to excite interest in it by giving it a mean-
ing. The school would be satisfied to prepare men
capable of acting here below and of accomplishing
their duty. We do not despise nature, nor see in it
the source of all sin. We see in it the occasion and the
reason as well as the material for our activity ; we strive
to understand it in order to dominate it, to make its
laws serve our purposes, to make it express in us and
around us the unity of human thought. We no longer
find the solution of all the diflSculties of our present
life in the hypothesis of a future life, which excuses us
from solving these difficulties ourselves; we refuse to
resign ourselves to evil on the pretext that amends will
certainly be made in a better world; we study the
causes of evil in order to understand and suppress it.
Conscious of the solidarity which relates our life to the
lives of our fellow creatures, we do not isolate ourselves
in the thought of individual salvation. We know that
our salvation is bound up in the salvation of all other
men, and the goal of our hope is a society in which
no man could fail to attain the dignity of the reasonable,
free being.
Thus there is formed in us the idea of justice, which,
instead of delivering men over to the hazards of a deadly
competition, would unite them in fraternal effort to-
GABRIEL SfiAILLES 211
ward a higher Hfe. This determination to transmute
science into power, to coerce nature into the service of
the mind, to substitute the law of justice for the law
of violence, to give to this world what man alone can
contribute, gentleness and kindness, this entirely
worldly morality does not seem to me to humiliate the
mind. It is not a mean task finally to make of a man
what he pretends to be in essence, namely, a reasonable
being, a personality, and in this way to assure the
reign of peace on the earth. Our adversaries alternately
declare it chimerical, out of all proportion to nature
and to the tvill of man, then commonplace, vulgar, in-
suflScient to appease the thirst for the infinite with
which they profess to be tormented. But as it stands,
this ethics of work, by uniting the effort of the in-
dividual with the great cooperative work which sur-
passes it, gives a higher meaning to life. It excludes
no one, and no one has the right to exclude himself
from participation in it. Far from being the sectarian
spirit, the non-sectarian spirit is opposed to the spirit
of a party, of a Church. It draws its life from the
truths that are common to all ; it is the spirit of what-
ever is social, universal, and human.
ALFRED MOULET
Alfred Moulet (1870-1917), agrege, academy inspector of the
Vendee.
PROGRAM FOR MORAL EDUCATION *
Such is the official program for moral instruction in
the public primary school. It is perfectly clear. Who-
ever puts the non-sectarian school to the test, whether
he praises or blames it, must base his criticism on this
program, and first of all he must read it in the clear in-
tention of its promoters.
A mere perusal of the program forces the following
conviction on every impartial reader : " Considered in
connection with what might be called the general con-
sensus of French opinion in 1886, it advances nothing
new in moral theory." The novel, and if you wish,
the revolutionary character of its teaching lies in its
non-sectarianism, in its purpose to be independent of
every religious system, of every church. There is no
novelty in its content nor in the substance itself. At
that date it retained and meant to bequeath to child-
hood merely the vital traditions of practically all
Frenchmen, the moral habits of the nation, those
customary opinions and judgments, those truths on
which families were united, however they may have
divided on other points.
For us it suffices that the school of 1882-1886,
through this program which is still that of the school of
1915, should have desired to express the French con-
science in its most universal characteristics at a given
moment in history. On close examination it will be
^ From D*une iducaiion morale dSmocraiique.
212
ALFRED MOULET 213
noted that the program of 1886 teaches the child as a
social morality rather than as an individual ; in other
words, it endeavors to develop in him the ability to
live as a component part of the Republic. This social
morality which the official program analyzes in its
principles, least disputed and most likely to be ac-
cepted by all, is the morality which was practiced by
all honest Frenchmen of that time and which was in
a fashion the framework of their lives and the founda-
tion of their consciences.
The above program does not offer the child immu-
table forms of duty, express commandments, hypotheses
that are to hold forever on the subject of life and death ;
it does not propose ready-made moral conceptions that
cannot be changed, an orthodox doctrine of the family,
of the nation, of humanity, or of God. It is neither
an abstract dogma nor a catechetical enumeration ; it
is by no means an academic or sectarian collection of
truths, receipts, and practices, authoritatively taught
by the major to the minor, by the master to the pupil.
It is not a scheme which endeavors to do away with
social and moral evolution while trying to preserve
what is profitable to those in power, and to perpetuate
moral, political, economic, and social forms.
What is it, then, in reality.?* It simply reminds the
child of the moral tendency common to honest men, to
all those who more or less deliberately think, live, and
hope according to law and according to duty. It re-
minds him of the habit, instinctive at least in some
degree in even the rudest men, of reasoning out their
actions, of the characteristically human effort to bind
all moral activity and the entire conscience itself to an
214 FRENCH EDUCATIONAL IDEALS OF TODAY
ideaL Fundamentally, therefore, it is not this or that
duty which the primary school teaches the child to the
exclusion of certain others. Properly speaking, it does
not choose arbitrarily the rules of life; it strengthens
and develops in the child the moral sense, the sense of
duty, the sense of law and of virtue. Close examina-
tion will prove that the details of this program are
but an illustration of a single precept, acceptable to
all without distinction : to live as a thinking being, to
progress in conformity to a moral ideal and a lofty
ambition. Only he who would pretend to live free
from restraint, according to his caprice and fancy,
could protest against a school which disciplines the
child. The political law does not recognize the right
to anarchy in republican society; it cannot recognize
it in the republican school. The Republic, founded
upon order, wishes the school to teach the child at
least the republican order, without, however, com-
promising the future.
The non-sectarian school is not the work of a few
advanced thinkers imposed upon a docile country.
They would not have been able to create anything en-
during if the French conscience had not been ready to
follow them. This is what the adversaries of our school
do not wish to understand, cannot understand, or are
anxious to conceal from those whom they direct. Cer-
tainly they have the right to attempt a reaction ac-
cording to their own preferences. They have no right
to believe, nor even to allow it to be believed, that the
creation of the non-sectarian school was the coup de
force of an audacious minority. The non -sectarian
school has come because the nation wished it. The
ALFBED MOULET 215
program of moral instruction, long prophesied, con-
ceived, and hoped for, was in the traditions of France
as she marched forward toward her republican aspira-
tions. This program is not only the conscious effort
of the men who gave the school a new mission — that
of laying the foundation of social peace through ele-
mentary instruction ; it is the expression of the repub-
lican conscience in 1882. If the school has since in-
dorsed and clarified this conscience, we must give
France the credit.
M. Ferdinand Buisson, in a lecture at Rodz in 1911,
said :
If our adversaries were willing to understand the profound
appeal of those non-sectarian schools, instead of attacking us with
a harshness that amounts at times to ferocity, they would be tempted
to say, "We have here only a radiant unfolding of the Christian
idea!" Who gave this formula to men, "Ye are all brethren"?
Who made men understand that they should love one another in
order to work out their destiny? Who diffused these ideas, so
beautiful, so superb ? Who, if not the Evangelists ? Indeed, those
who attack us might truthfully say: "You are disciples of the
Gospel without knowing it! What you are doing is in another
way the work of the Church which you extend to all society ! You
dream of extending this Gospel to all men; you desire this fra-
ternity not for the members of one Church, but for all society!"
In the same way that the Christians are heirs of the Greeks, the
Egyptians, and the Hindoos, we are heirs of all those who have
worked to build up human morality and have handed down to us
the principles which we cannot do without.
In this sense the French school is the most human
of schools, the most careful of moral tradition, the one
which creates most confidence in the progress of reason.
EDOUARD PETIT
Edouard Petit (1858- ), Oflacer of Public Instruction,
chevalier of the Legion of Honor, agrege, teacher in provincial
and Paris lycees, general inspector of public instruction since 1899.
He has published most interesting reports on extension teaching,
on classes for adults, and on various other extra-school activities.
MARRIAGES BETWEEN TEACHERS ^
ISIarriages of men and women teachers are generally
happy. Similarity of birth, tastes, and professional
interests naturally binHs them together. Although
they may insure their own happiness, they do not al-
ways contribute to that of the academy inspectors,
who are often at a loss to find positions in the same
community for conjugally imited teachers. How fre-
quently on the eve of the annual readjustment do
these inspectors have to bend over their checkerboards !
How many tortuous and scientific combinations the
chief of service has to work out in order to bring co-
workers together in the school who have been united
in the courthouse !
Such marriages are usually contracted early in life.
Sometimes the young people come from the same vil-
lage, but more often from the same canton. Their
families are acquainted, or else the young people have
made each other's acquaintance in the chief town of
the department during their stay at the normal school.
It is a vain precaution to locate the normal schools of
the young men and the young women at opposite sides
of the same city. I have often asked myself the reason,
or rather I have noted with regret that contrary to all
geometrical laws, parallel classes meet each other.
* From La vie scolaire, pages 337 et seq.
216
EDOUARD PETIT 217
The walks the young people take provide occasions for
seeing each other ; the holidays also, as well as the de-
partures from and the returns to the station, are
equally favorable, although all administrative precau-
tions are solemnly and uselessly taken. I really should
not see any harm in bringing together these workers in
the same vineyard, in letting the two educational es-
tablishments exchange invitations, but the rules are
all against it. Fortunately, however, the alumni re-
union amiably completes what the school started very
much in spite of itself. The reunion is followed by a
banquet and crowned by a ball. At the ball affinities
are discovered, and sometimes vows are exchanged.
The chance meeting, however, is not entirely re-
sponsible. Sometimes flashes of a continuous and
intense current have preceded the matrimonial thun-
derbolt. Friendships started on the benches of the
village school have ripened into stronger sentiments.
It even happens that pedagogical idylls — let us not
be too hard on them — frequently become realities.
Only the other day I heard of a certain normal student
who, as soon as he was appointed to a school, patiently
and charmingly prepared his fiancee for her higher
certificate, helped her win it, and then won her hand.
The youth of our lower classes are indeed forced to
become serious. Times are changing. Yesterday Paul
helped Virginia cross a brook by stepping from stone
to stone. Today he would be assisting her over snares
and precipices in order to help her through her ex-
aminations. It is less poetic, but what can one do?
We are progressing. At any rate the intellectual union
does not preclude that of the heart.
218 FRENCH EDUCATIONAL IDEALS OF TODAY
The proof is that these couples are usually closely
united. Husband and wife work side by side, with
the same interests in life and the same ideals. They
advise each other, help each other, and hghten each
other's work. Studying by twos becomes a joy. It
loses its monotony, and there are no financial cares.
Combining two salaries makes possible certain little
economies, the founding of a family, and the proper
bringing up of children who will be a credit to the
father and the mother. I have known many sons and
daughters of school teachers, and I have noticed that
they succeed in making a place for themselves in the
sun, thanks to their knowledge and their ardor for
work. The names of the sons of teachers who have
made their mark in literature, in science, and in indus-
try would fill a long list. In certain departments there
are, so to speak, dynasties of teachers whose "cer-
tificates" are titles of nobility.
It rarely happens that married teachers fail to re-
main a long time in the village or town to which they
have been appointed. The home binds them to the
school. The school gains stability through a long
and well-ordered administration. No more "pulling
up" and moving ; no more "tramp" teachers ; no more
fickleness. The couples take to heart the interests of
the commune where they have loved each other, where
their children were bom, and to which the children
have in their turn become attached.
They see the classes of pupils they have taught
grow up. They are surrounded by esteem and gen-
uine affection. Why should they go elsewhere, ex-
cept those who are aspiring to important principalships
EDOUARD PETIT 219
in the big cities, to begin life over again, change their
habits, and adapt themselves to new economic and
social environment, the knowledge of which would re-
quire new efforts?
They prefer, and rightly so, to advance "on the
spot." They also prefer the consideration and influ-
ence which are acquired through persistent service
and which assume a character of serious tenderness as
the years pass. They become well-informed advisers
who are consulted on serious occasions. They settle
differences. Happy, they spread happiness around
them. Frofii day to day they gain a moral influence
which circumstances strengthen and which passes
quietly and imperceptibly into the school and into the
non-sectarian parsonage. Of course there are persons
who cannot pardon the influence of these country "in-
tellectuals," but their influence persists and will per-
sist tomorrow in still greater degree.
THE MUTUAL BENEFIT ASSOCIATION IN THE
SCHOOL 1
The school mutual benefit association is direct appli-
cation of the spirit of the solidarity which for the last
quarter of a century has been developing in the pri-
mary schools of France. This new doctrine which has
been cultivating new ground has reaped unexpected
harvests.
The benefit association makes it possible for children
to help themselves and at the same time to help other
1 This summary was written expressly for this volume by M. Edouard
Petit. For a more detailed account, see La vie scolaire, pages 273 et seq.
220 FRENCH EDUCATIONAL IDEALS OF TODAY
children. The little boy or girl affiliated with the as-
sociation pays dues of ten centimes (two cents) per
week, of which five are devoted to the general relief
fund and five are added to his own personal deposit
toward a pension, his reserve capital. In case of ill-
ness, the member receives a daily indemnity of fifty
centimes for one month. This indemnity may be pro-
longed for a second month, but it is reduced to twenty-
five centimes per day.
The association, which was organized by its ingen-
ious founder, J. C. Cave, in a working men's district
of Paris (La Villette) in 1887, numbered in 1894-1895
some 10,000 children. By 1914 its membership had in-
creased to 875,000 children and 100,000 adolescents
grouped in special sections. At ten centimes per
week, the apprentice shareholders turn in more than
five million francs a year for their retiring pensions or
for mutual relief. They pay out one million francs a
year to sick children, and the reserve fund exceeds
fifty millions.
The association attracts children from all walks of
life. Among its branches are (a) the school benefit
association, composed of the pupils of the lycees and
colleges and the pupils of the primary schools; (b) a
benefit association which enrolls foundlings, the greater
number of whom could join the association if their
guardians were not hampered by complicated ad-
ministrative and financial rules ; and (c) the forest
benefit association, which devotes its efforts to the
problem of reforesting bare hillsides.
The school benefit association is the best-known and
most popular institution through which social educa-
EDOUARD PETIT 221
tion is organized and strengthened in the school. In
1906 it expanded into a "National Union of School
and Family Mutual Benefit Associations," and it is
having greater and greater success. Its progress is
easily explained. It permeates the school and is a
living, convincing lesson in cooperative ethics. It is
of a practical, tangible nature. It strengthens the
influence of the teacher, who fills a social role, at the
same time that it trains the social sense of his pupils.
It thus has an educational value quite apart from its
financial advantages.
At first restricted to the primary school, it has since
been extended to include pupils in lycees and colleges ;
it has taken in foundlings (in seventy departments, in-
cluding the Seine) ; and it has introduced itseM into
the alumni associations in the form of the Adolescent
Benefit Association, wherever the mutual benefit as-
sociations do not include women among their members.
It establishes a bond of common interest among all
the societies included within its membership, amal-
gamates them, and cements them into a unified whole.
The association extends outside the limits of the
school. It is restricted preferably to the canton, al-
though it may extend to the arrondissement, or even
the department, thereby establishing the solidarity of
productive effort among the schools. The association,
which is very flexible, lends itself to the most varied
and original experiments. "Cave's Little Ones," as
these organizations are familiarly called in memory of
their founder, combine preventive hygiene with their
other activities. They devote a part of their surplus
to sending colonies of weak and anemic children on
222 FRENCH EDUCATIONAL IDEALS OF TODAY
long vacations, and to supporting open-air schools
similar to the one founded at Montigny-sur-Loing near
the forest of Fontainebleau. One hundred and fifty
members were sent to the Mutualiste Nest in 1913 by
the united societies of three Parisian arrondissements.
The war has not interrupted this branch of their
activity. In 1915-1916 three hundred sickly children
were sent to the forest colony.
"The seed is becoming scarce," said Pasteur, in
speaking of children. "Let us save the seed!" The
school mutual benefit association strives to save the
seed. It makes sure of the "capital of health," the
guarantee of the pension-capital.
The war has made it possible for the child members
of the association whom the invasion spared to give
fraternal relief to the child members that have suffered
in the country occupied by the enemy. The idea
originated among the Belgian members and has spread
from school to school throughout France. The chil-
dren have refused to divide the surplus accruing each
year, and when hostihties cease they will send to their
comrades in the invaded districts the sums they are
now saving up for them. Already 400,000 francs have
been set aside and will constitute the offering of the
members to those children who during long months
have suffered the hardships of invasion.
The school mutual benefit association is not unknown
outside France. Its power of expansion is such that
school societies of this character are being formed in
Belgium, in Italy, and in a part of Switzerland.
EDOUARD PETIT 223
SCHOOL EXCURSIONS
I WISH to indorse most heartily this new and attrac-
tive branch of your work, which you have so aptly
named "school excursions," and which has as its dis-
tinctive characteristic the fact that it originated in
and belongs to the school.
These excursions constitute a veritable school of
travel, and how attractive and unique a school ! The
inspiration was prompted by necessity. It supple-
ments the regular school, and it will surely develop
and render valuable service to thousands of children.
Thanks to your school excursions, school boys and girls
know how to prepare for a trip, how to economize their
time and strength, how to observe accurately and
opportunely, how to record their impressions neatly
and describe them exactly. These excursions foster a
healthy rivalry among the pupils, for one can gain a
position on the honor roll only if after a hard struggle
one has won the primary certificate with the mention
"very good."
They serve as a means of solidarity, since the candi-
dates for the excursions pay a voluntary contribution
of ten centimes each for the benefit of the most deserving
of their comrades. They likewise provide a lesson in
geography that is vital and picturesque, and they make
us envy your "beloved country," your Mame, proud of
her historic past which sums up the history of the
nation as a whole, proud of her vineyards, proud of
her industries. They associate the love of travel with
^ Passages taken from an address given at Reims, July, 1904, at the
AssembUe generale des voyages scolaires.
224 FRENCH EDUCATIONAL IDEALS OF TODAY
the feeling one should have for one's birthplace, for
they permit your young members to visit the Aisne,
the Ardennes, a part of the Meuse and the Oise, as
well as Versailles and Paris. They have even sent
your wards and your ideas across the frontier to visit
our neighbors the Belgians.
Your school excursions provide an opportunity for
exercising the right of franchise. It is the vote of the
electors which chooses the members of the party. You
are initiating future citizens into the mystery of the
ballot. As apostles of a progressive feminism look-
ing to the future of the country, you confer the elec-
toral privilege upon the schoolgirls who, having had a
foretaste of it in childhood, will doubtless not be will-
ing to give it up when they have grown to maturity.
Boys and girls run to the ballot box in eager rivalry.
One boy writes : " The procedure is absolutely true to
life. The pupils know each other well. If the teacher
himself chose the one to make the trip, other boys might
be jealous." A little girl writes : "If it were the most
learned pupil in the school who made the trip, it would
not always be the best comrade." And in the cleverly
written article which appeared over the signature of
M. Andre in the Revue pidagogique, I find this passage
worthy of our consideration :
Our embryo electors conducted themselves admirably. They
gave evidence of soundness of judgment and a disinterestedness
which might well serve as an example to our political electors.
Very few children gave away their votes, and many of them ob-
tained the required majority on the first ballot.
Gentlemen, your work has been in progress for five
years. It has benefited 1311 children through its
EDOUARD PETIT 225
activity. It has spent 20,000 francs usefully. It has
been able to draw about the school more than 2000
friends and collaborators. It has the support of the
town and district governments. May it cease to be
local ; may it become national, and spread throughout
the schools of France !
At the present time the school needs to popularize
itself through service. It must ally itself with the
family and draw support from the town. It builds
up; it educates; but it has a more difficult and at
the same time a more general task to perform. It must
become a s6cial center, open to those children who
should enjoy the advantages of kindergartens, lunch-
rooms, workrooms, and manual training, open to those
young people for whom it should provide night schools,
lectures, readings, opportunity for social meetings, and
those gatherings which bring together in the evening
fathers, mothers, and young people, all united in grati-
tude toward the teachers and educators of the people.
The school, the non-sectarian school, will be great
and strong only if we complete and support it by sup-
plementary activities of this sort, and if we win for it
through persistent effort the influence that springs
from devotion to the welfare of the social whole.
CHARLES WAGNER
Charles Wagner (1851- ), pastor of the Reformed Church,
author, lecturer.
THE LESSON OF THE AX AND THE KEY^
The famous story-teller Andersen had the priceless
gift of hearing dumb objects speak. One day an old
street lantern tells him its reminiscences ; another
day, entering a silent kitchen at twilight, he hears the
kettle and the coffee pot confiding in each other. If
we only knew how to listen well, we should often hear
very curious things.
Li order to help me show you the manner in which
we should treat our fellow creatures, I have brought
with me today two objects. The first is an ax, and
the second is a key. These objects are no more able
to speak than is an old street lantern or a venerable
coffee pot. Nevertheless, they will tell you many
things that will make it easier for you to grasp what
I wish to explain. When you have left here, these
two objects will have fixed certain ideas in your mem-
ory.
What is an ax used for? For splitting wood, is it
not.f* Suppose I want to prepare a meal. First, I
shall have to light the fire. To keep up the fire I
have only a great block of wood. It will never bum,
neither will it go into the stove. The ax will help me
split it in pieces. What would you say if I should try
to use the key in order to split this wood ? You would
think I had lost my mind completely. But would you
conclude that a key is a useless and stupid implement ?
* From A travers le prisme du temps, 1912.
226
CHARLES WAGNER 227
Certainly not. Only, a key is used for something else.
Although a key is incapable of splitting this block of
wood, yet it will wind a watch, or it will open a door,
a safe, or a padlock. Your watch has stopped. It
needs winding. Will you take an ax for this delicate
work ? What can an ax do toward starting the mechan-
ism of a watch? Absolutely nothing. It could only
damage or destroy the watch.
For every kind of work a tool is necessary. There
is work that demands force, and brutal and violent
methods. There is another kind which requires deli-
cacy and dexterity. The ax is a rough tool ; the key
is finer and more compHcated. Remember this, in
dealing with your fellow creatures.
Violence has slight hold on man. You may pro-
duce certain results with it, but not those you desire,
or at least those you ought to desire. Where man is
concerned, do not go about things with the ax but
with the key, that is to say, with persuasion, that in-
telligent and fraternal influence by means of which
good will and confidence are gained. In delicacy of
structure no mechanism equals the mind of man; in
comparison with the human soul, the finest watch is
a coarse contrivance. Too often we treat our fellow
creatures without respect, without understanding the
noble sentiments, thoroughly worthy of our respect,
that each one carries within him. We act upon them
like the brutal ax which wounds, bruises, disorganizes,
and then we complain of their worthlessness as of the
watch that will not run. Why do we not have recourse
to the finer tools .^^ He who tries to obtain something
from man by violence cannot know him. Violence
228 FRENCH EDUCATIONAL IDEALS OF TODAY
counts upon fear; it presumes to obtain everything
through terror, which is evil and can produce nothing
good. To be sure, one can obtain results from fright,
threats, or blows. But what are these results, and
how long do they last? Those who resort to violence
in order to govern us do not know the best that is in
us. Like vicious gardeners who sow the ground with
briers and thistles, they cultivate the worst in man.
Are gardens made to give crops of nettles, of thistles,
and of briers.'^
Neither is man made to produce the fruits of violence
and tyranny, which are slavish obedience, forced labor,
feigned submission, with all the hypocrisy, the hate,
and the revolt that constraint involves. I repeat it;
the best in man is not known. We see in him only
the slave that we can drive with a cudgel, but we do
not see in him the free being, rich in good will, affec-
tionate and fraternal, the noble and benevolent spirit
from which the best results can be gained only through
the confidence that awakens confidence, the disinter-
estedness that creates disinterestedness. To subject
man to our will through violence is after all a mere
aberration, a crime against justice, against human
nature, and against God who created man for liberty.
One should seek the good will which, like a hidden
treasure often unknown even to oneself, each one
carries within him.
Listen well to this, and never forget it. A man, a
woman, a child, the first comer, the one who in ap-
pearance may only awaken your contempt, as well as
the most gifted among us, is like unto a fortress. No
citadel built by architects and masons is so solid, for
CHARLES WAGNER 229
after all an ordinary citadel is never impregnable. It
can be carried. But the citadel that each one of us
carries in his heart and in his soul is not to be taken
by violence. No force can prevail against the mind.
One may torture us, oppress us, cut us in pieces ; one
cannot force us to will, or to think, or to love what we
do not will, and think, and love freely. In this con-
sists our native nobility. It is not well enough recog-
nized ; and it is for this reason that man descends to
the point of using force. In both cases, however, what
he obtains and what he gives are nothing.
Let us resume our comparison of the ax and the key,
as well as that of the citadel to which we are comparing
man. The first result of an attack upon a stronghold
is that its doors are closed, even before you approach.
Before you are ramparts, trenches, raised drawbridges.
Cannon are pointed through the embrasures ; soldiers
are watching in the casemates, with weapons ready.
Just so is man when you approach him by force. His
mind shuts up and bristles; he prepares all his re-
sources in order to do you as much damage as possible.
His face is like the threatening ramparts behind which
the enemy is entrenched. The ax comes down in vain
on the iron doors ; they will not open.
But if you have the key, or if you approach as a
friend, the gates grind on their steel hinges and make
way for you. Furthermore, while from without you
can see only dismal stones and towers bristling with
pikes, within you find warmth and welcome. If the
fortress is vast, discoveries and surprises await you.
There are gardens in the sun, wherein are strawberries
reddening in their beds, while pears are assuming
230 FRENCH EDUCATIONAL IDEALS OF TODAY
golden hues on the trellises built against the walls.
All this is offered you, for you come as a friend.
Thus we must treat man as a friend. Do not ap-
proach him as an adversary, a brigand, with raised ax,
but as a kindly companion with hand outstretched.
Discover the way to his heart; find the key to it;
leam the entrance to the inner life of each one. Make
yourself loved and not feared. Be patient, and per-
sistent in using the fraternal measures of equity and
justice. Then in place of blows or obstinate resist-
ance, you will meet good will, friendship, sincerity, in
fact all the good and noble qualities which He hidden
in the heart of every man.
Do not forget the lesson of the ax and the key, and
when you have occasion to approach your fellow crea-
tures, use the key first. Take the ax rarely, and then
only if no other means remains.
IN THE LAND OF "JUST ABOUT"
If every one does not like traveling because of the
annoyances that go with it, there are nevertheless few
people who do not enjoy accounts of travels. Children
especially love to listen to stories of the adventures
that happen to explorers in far-away and mysterious
lands. Now I have just made a long trip through a
territory inhabited by queer people, and I shall tell
you what I saw.
I had often heard of the land of Just About. Con-
cluding that the best way to get an idea of its inhab-
itants and their ways was to go to their coimtry, I
packed my grip, took some money, a stout stick, my
CHAKLES WAGNER «S1
watch, and a box of good-humor lozenges. These
lozenges are an excellent thing to take when you are
traveling, in case unpleasant circumstances should
occur. If you leave them behind, you run the risk of
having a dull time.
Crossing the country where two and two make four,
where perpendicular lines stand erect on their hori-
zontals, where noon is the middle of the day, where
yes is yes and no is no, I arrived finally at a frontier.
To tell the truth, it was not a really, truly frontier.
Indeed, nobody has ever found it possible to settle the
boundary of the country of Just About. No one knows
precisely where it begins or where it ends. This, too,
is unfortunate, for the citizens of the land of Just About y
not having very definite frontiers, are perpetually quar-
reling with their neighbors. They live with them on a
footing which one cannot call a belligerent footing be-
cause they rarely have real wars, and for a very good
reason. Their army only just about exists. Their
military chiefs are generals, if you insist. But, after
all, they are only sorts of generals who know just about
how to command, and to counterbalance this are just
about ignorant of strategy, geography, and everything
that pertains to the art of war. They learned this
art, after a fashion, in the schools. But everything in
their schools being only half or three-quarters taught,
the young officers who graduate from them are jokes.
The soldiers they command are soldiers of the same
type. Evidently they are what might be called
soldiers, but they are just about drilled ; their swords
just about cut; their rifles shoot quasi-straight; and
their powder is neither quite dry nor quite wet. Ac-
232 FRENCH EDUCATIONAL mEALS OF TODAY
cordingly, when they have pointed their cannon and
taken aim, so so, it cannot be said that the weapon
always goes off, or that it always misses, that it hits or
that it does not hit. All that is approximate. The
only thing that one can fairly and squarely declare is
that every time this kind of an army has encountered
the enemy it has met defeat. Those instances I have in
mind now were only semi-serious.
In the land of Just About the children just about
obey their parents. ^Vhen they sit down at table,
they have clean hands, by courtesy. They eat their
soup, but they never eat it all ; there is always a res-
idue. They go to school and get there on time, or
somewhere near it. Their bags are half-open, half-
shut; their exercises are begun but not finished.
When they write, they mind only three quarters of
their P's and Q's. Most of their pages are clean, but
not all of them. They know their lessons, but not en-
tirely. \Mien the teacher talks, they open one eye
and lend one ear. The other ear and the other eye
are vaguely busy with various objects. When the
inspector visits the school, he writes down the follow-
ing comment: "Pupils almost good, or else they are
almost bad. I could not very well pass on them."
Upon leaving, he gives the teacher compliments
which are also criticisms, if you take them that way,
but the person who would say so is very subtle.
The joiners of the land of Just About make parquetry,
doors, and windows, like all joiners. Only, when you
watch them work you notice that they saw and plane
just about straight. At a pinch you might say it was
planing, for their edges are never true. The doors have
CHARLES WAGNER 233
slits in them, and the windows are neither open nor
closed. The panes blink on account of their uncer-
tain angles, the parquet floors wave up and down, and
the tables dance.
Their coopers make barrels, tubs, tuns, and troughs,
but everything leaks. When you gaze into a looking-
glass in the land of Just About, you are not absolutely
sure whose face you see. Perhaps it is you, but it might
also be your brother or your cousin. The portraits
painted by the artists over there all have a vague re-
semblance to the originals.
The masons in the land of Just About have, like our
masons, the plumb-line and the square, but no angle
is a right angle, and no wall is perpendicular. Are
they oblique.^ It could not be claimed so without
exaggeration. And so the houses, the churches, and
the markets are relatively substantial. Yes, the roof
of a theater in a city of Just About did fall in lately.
Still it must be admitted that only a part of it fell,
and that the victims were only half-killed. The sur-
geons who answered the hurry call almost cured the
patients and just about properly reset a certain number
of fractured limbs.
The merchants in this weird country use scales,
weights, and measures that are passably accurate.
However, if you weigh your purchases when you get
home, you are always just a little short. If they make
change, you are sure to find some good coins, but
rarely are they all good. At the grocer's the groceries
are of medium quality. It would be doing these good
people an injustice to say that they sell inferior prod-
ucts; but on the other hand it would be wrong to
234 FRENCH EDUCATIONAL IDEALS OF TODAY
call them high class. The shops have eggs that are
nearly fresh. The meat, the fish, and the poultry are
fresh, too, but of a questionable freshness. And this
little adjective, which does not say enough and which
says too much, is appKcable to the honesty of these
tradesmen as well as to the cleanhness of their shops.
If something out of the ordinary happens, anything
like an accident, a fight, or an assassination, the pohce
arrive neither soon enough nor too late. They take
the evidence and make their report. There is always
something lacking about this report. It is very much
like a horse when he is walking on three legs. At the
courthouse witnesses are called. They are not very
sure of what they have seen and heard ; but they take
good care not to say they have not seen or heard
anything. Do they tell the truth? They certainly
do ; but they keep back a part of it. Once the speeches
of counsel are finished, the judges pass a sentence in
which they lump things. Consequently most of the
time when there is a lawsuit on hand, they never finish
it. They do not succeed in proving the facts or in
declaring who is right and who is wrong.
I made a point of noticing the women of the country.
But if you were to ask me whether they are beautiful
or ugly, I should be very much perplexed. If you said
they were ugly, you would be slandering them ; if you
said they were beautiful, you would be flattering them
shamefully. If you want to find out from me whether
these women are graceful, active, good housekeepers,
intelligent, and virtuous, I really should be at a loss to
answer. They do everything the way they sweep
and knit. How do they sweep and knit ? This way :
CHARLES WAGNER 235
they sweep in the middle of the room, but not in the
corners. When they knit, they drop stitches. As a
result the little out-of-the-way corners of their houses
are dirty, and their stockings have holes.
What kind of food did I find on my trip ? Neither
good nor bad. Did I have cool things to drink .^ I
cannot truthfully say so. Were the drinks tepid,
then ? No, I have no right to assert it positively, or to
complain in consequence, for their water, their wine,
and their beer are neither warm nor cold.
And they themselves are neither warm nor cold.
From the government and executive officials down to
the families and private individuals in the land of Just
About, nothing is frank or up and down or squarely
asserted.
What ought to be thought of such a country ? Noth-
ing bad, nothing good. But that in itself is not good.
It is bad, very bad indeed. What is a half -knowledge,
a half -skill, a half-truth, a half -honesty ? It is some-
times worse than the absence of knowledge, skill, or
honesty. Give me the out-and-out rascals, liars who
have the courage of their lies. These are preferable.
At least one knows what to expect. Let us be wholly
what we are. Let us do wholly what we have to do.
Do not let us ever be satisfied with the "just about."
At any rate nothing is so irritating as the "just about."
I learned something of it over there. I left just in
time. So much indecision and fickleness and equivo-
cation drove me beside myself, and you could fairly
see my good-humor lozenges melt.
HENRI MARION
Henri Marion (1846-1896), lycee agrege, subsequently pro-
fessor at the Sorbonne (a new chair in the science of education) ;
instrumental in establishing the higher primary normal schools
at St. Cloud and Fontenay-aux-Roses ; author of several philo-
sophical and pedagogical works : La solidariU morale, V Education
dans V University, Legons de morale, L'Mucation des jeunes fiUes.
QUESTIONS OF DISCIPLINE »
Our establishments of secondary education are al-
most always organized on the boarding-school plan.
Doubtless certain lycees, and not the least prosperous
among them, are day schools pure and simple, but they
are so few and so exceptional that they can almost be
left out of consideration. Doubtless in all the lycees
and colleges in France there is a considerable propor-
tion of day pupils ; but as is well known, it is not on
these that the discipline of the school weighs most
heavily, and it is not their lot which should give the
public most concern. The education of the day pu-
pils is ultimately the concern of their families quite as
much as, and perhaps more than, it is that of the edu-
cational authorities. In giving them to us for in-
struction, the parents have implicitly, sometimes ex-
pressly, reserved the right of discipline. Social and
domestic environment, whether it has the same aim
as the classroom or whether it counteracts and destroys
the effect of the class, exerts such an influence on the
1 Extracts from the report on discipline in establishments of secondary
education made by the sub-commission on discipline to the general com-
mission for the improvement in organization of establishments of secondary
education, 1888. This report was drawn up by Henri Marion of the Faculty
of Letters of the University of Paris.
HENRI MARION 237
manners, character, and life of the day pupils that our
responsibility, so far as they are concerned, is min-
imized. But we have a great responsibility toward
the boarding pupils, or rather toward the nation
through them. Moreover, a greater part of the pro-
posed measures apply to both classes of pupils.
Thousands of children are unconditionally intrusted
to the educational authorities. As far as possible,
these are to be made into the men the country needs.
What other force than the system of education can pro-
vide us with the characters our institutions demand,
and what else can build up that moral consciousness
without which liberty cannot live.f* Moral and civic
education, which is a pressing necessity at all times and
which the primary school today is striving to give to
all, is doubly necessary for those who will not only
have to act aright themselves, but who, through word
of mouth, the press, books, and social influence, will
mold public spirit and direct public opinion.
Until now we have been too much inclined to believe
that this moral education could be given indirectly,
implied as it is in general culture. True culture gives
historical knowledge, philosophic habits, good sense,
and good taste, which, while they are useful every-
where, also help one to see clearly and to conduct one-
self honestly in public matters. And yet brains, as it
has been very well said, assist in everything, but they
are nowhere all-sufficient. Most certainly they do not
suffice to enable a man to play a useful part in a de-
mocracy, for they do not presuppose even the most
modest, the most negative of these virtues that the
exercise of liberty demands : patience, self-control, and
238 FRENCH EDUCATIONAL mEALS OF TODAY
resistance to the impulses of passion. Their whole
education and not their instruction alone must pre-
pare our young people for a life of liberty.
We prepare ourselves for liberty only by using it.
Now the boarding school by its very nature can pro-
vide but a restricted opportunity for liberty. Almost
necessarily boarding-school government is a govern-
ment by authority, mechanical in spirit. How can the
military type on which the lycee was first conceived
be modified so as to make of it a school of independence
for the individual?
Doubtless there is also a preparation for liberty in
learning how to obey, but this preparation is too indirect.
Besides, there are different kinds of obedience. To
obey because one does not know how to do otherwise,
without taking an opportunity for revolt at intervals —
is not that on the whole the very opposite of knowing
how to govern oneself? Every one must feel that to
submit youth to this sort of obedience could never be
the best means of making free men.
Nevertheless, the boarding school seems to be a
necessity in our society, for without it half the young
people in France who take up secondary work would
not do so. All that one can reasonably ask is that the
State do everything in its power to check the over-de-
velopment and correct the evil effects of this system.
Its suppression may be desirable, but there is probably
a great deal to be considered on this question, and its
abolishment might be regretted even from the purely
theoretical point of view. At present it is certain that
we need not expect any results from the efforts to
abolish the boarding school.
HENRI MAKION
But if the boarding-school system must be accepted,
it is on one condition which the sub-commission has in-
sisted upon at every step ; namely, that the number of
pupils in each establishment be kept within reasonable
limits and never under any pretext be allowed to reach
the condition one finds in certain institutions at the
present moment.
In our opinion, one principle dominates the whole
question of discipline. As unity is the essential fea-
ture of character, so unity is the first necessity in edu-
cation. The school where each child cannot be inti-
mately known by the head of the school and followed
with the same care from one end of his development
to the other is not an educational institution.
Doubtless the child will not reach his full character
development at college. If, as a certain philosopher
has said, "the foundation of character consists not in
the sum total of its quaUties, but in the absolute unity
of its guiding principle," one can see that few adults
(very few indeed, and doubtless never before their
full maturity) attain that state of perfection where
they can solemnly and irrevocably agree to follow
thenceforth a single principle of conduct. Neverthe-
less, it will be granted that there may be a certain prep-
aration for the diverse crises in the moral life. It is
the function of education to make known at the proper
time the principles worthy of dominating life and to
establish habits that will develop a love of these prin-
ciples and make the pupils realize their value. Now
how can laxness in discipline and the conflicting con-
trary influences which drag a child in every direction,
not only from one year to another but from one day to
240 FRENCH EDUCATIONAL IDEALS OF TODAY
the next, even from hour to hour in the same day —
how can this incoherence develop that spirit of order
in the child's conduct and that firmness of will which
make a man desirous and capable of regulating his
life according to principle ?
A certain diversity of influences is doubtless desir-
able, since it encourages diversity of character — a de-
sirable asset for society, and likewise a guarantee of
untrammeled development. But each pupil, through
all the change of teachers that our complicated school
life permits, should always feel that he is not kept in
leading strings, but that he is personally known, loved,
and watched over by some one whom nothing essential
escapes, some one who keeps track of his efforts, even
of his failures, and who advises or reprimands him in
moments of weakness. This guide, who should take
the place of the absent father, who is naturally the im-
personation of authority in the eyes of the child, and
who represents the general discipline more than any
one teacher, is the head of the institution himself.
This particular work belongs properly to him. To
put him in position to accomplish it is the first object
of the measures we wish to propose.
In order that the headmaster may really accomplish
the work of an educator, in order that he may have a
real knowledge of all the pupils confided to his care and
exert over all of them a lasting influence, it is first neces-
sary that he should not be overwhelmed with ad-
ministrative cares. Yet how can he avoid this with
the burden of a house of a thousand, twelve hundred,
fifteen hundred pupils, or more, and with all the mani-
fold anxieties and responsibilities such a house entails ?
HENRI MARION 241
The eminent men who bear such burdens are miracles
of devotion and skill ; their activity is great and pro-
ductive despite all their cares ; and a few of them
have left enduring memories. But it is evident that
their efficiency would be vastly greater under normal
conditions which would allow the man to show forth
through the administrator and which would permit
him to see more clearly in the schoolboy the man in
the making.
Therefore, Gentlemen, your sub-commission pro-
poses that first of all you express the formal desire to
see the number of students admitted into our insti-
tutions of secondary education restricted to a maximum
of five hundred for day schools, to four hundred for
schools which take both boarders and day pupils, and
to three hundred for boarding schools.
On this condition, we believe, and on this condition
only, can there be inaugurated in our lycees a discipline
whose one and only object shall be not to obtain regu-
larity of movement and external system, but which
shall aim resolutely to prepare reasonable minds for a
life of freedom.
F. ALENGRY
F. Alengry ( ), agrege; subsequently academy in-
spector ; at present rector of the academy at Chambery ; author
of various pedagogical works which have run through numerous
editions.
CULTIVATION AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE
REASON IN OUR SCHOOLS
You who have followed attentively and will continue
to follow the work of your children in school are not
unaware that we are striving to give each one of them
intellectual, moral, and civic training. In all aspects
of this beautiful and noble task which have been too
long separated and which we are now realizing simul-
taneously, our methods are based more and more on
reason, and are aiming more and more to form, to cul-
tivate, and to develop the reason.
We have banished the school exercises which be-
numb the intelligence, the work in which the personal
activity of the child is lacking, which cumbers the
memory with empty words and hollow formulas, and
smothers the living forces of the mind under the bur-
den of unassimilated knowledge. Rather we constantly
and progressively encourage the pupils to think for
themselves ; we stimulate their desire to know, to seek
the causes and the reasons for things. We therefore
reserve first place for those processes which require
observation and reflection. We are making of the
pupil an active collaborator rather than a passive
auditor.
From the lowest grades up to the highest you will
find us thus constantly occupied. Even in the infant
242
F. ALENGRY 243
classes which have been aptly called classes of initi-
ation, we are careful not to take advantage of the
pupil's credulity ; we avoid blocking the free develop-
ment of his personality by the old-time process of dis-
ciplinary restraint; we attempt to apportion and to
measure out the information given him, and by that
I mean appropriate information.
Let us run rapidly over the different branches, and
you will see that everywhere we have substituted more
active methods for the old passive ways of procedure.
In the study of language, for instance, we have be-
gun to elimitiate (although not yet suflSciently, accord-
ing to my way of thinking) the old-time grammatical
formulas, the last tenacious survival of the logic of
the Middle Ages. We have removed unreasonable de-
tails from analysis, abandoned mechanical copying,
and lessened the monotony of dictation, the conjuga-
tions, and the diverse grammatical exercises. We no
longer give difficult, complicated, or subtle subjects
for composition which are foreign to the pupil's expe-
rience and which teach him to be satisfied with words,
and to write merely for the sake of writing.
In history we have suppressed facts which have
no educational value, the long lists of names and
dynasties which it is not worth the trouble to teach
children, and we have retained events of real moral and
social significance, ideas, customs, and local usages.
We strive especially to bring these into relief, to bind
them together, to compare and group them under a
few principal topics.
In geography we have done some joyous cutting in
the dark, sad jungle of abstract definitions and useless
244 FRENCH EDUCATIONAL IDEALS OF TODAY
numerical data. Good teachers call up before the
pupil's imagination a vital, picturesque geography.
According to their judgment they establish the natural
and necessary relations which associate habitat, cli-
mate, soil, commerce, industry, man, and his evolution.
In arithmetic we are avoiding the catch problems
which oblige the child to reason haltingly, and which
torture the mind. For such problems we substitute
simple problems of gradually increasing difficulty which
teach accurate reasoning by following the natural
logical processes of the mind and by relying on real and
exact data. At the same time we demand clear and
precise reasoning in the oral demonstrations as w^ell as
in the written solutions.
In the physical and natural sciences we accumulate
material for observation ; we offer ever greater facili-
ties for experimentation ; we learn to see, to describe,
to classify, rather than to pile up words and formulas.
In ethics and philosophy we are endeavoring to de-
velop sincerity, the spirit of free questioning and free
criticism; we put the pupil on his guard against
ready-made or chance opinions, against prejudice and
bias; we accustom him to beware of precipitous or
ill-advised judgments, hasty or unfounded conclusions ;
we teach him to refer the motives of action as well as
those of thought to a few guiding principles, and to
view as a whole the multitude of facts and actions.
All our efforts, therefore, tend to rely upon reason
for the direction of our methods of teaching and of our
intellectual development. Who will blame us for hav-
ing chosen this as our guide .'^
EMILE BOUTROUX
Emile Boutroux (1845- ), contemporary French philosopher ;
professor at the Sorbonne; member of the Academy; director
of the Thiers Foundation ; friend and translator of the philosopher,
William James. Principal works : De la contingence des lots de la
nature; Questions de morale et d'Sdu^ation; La religion et la science;
Blaise Pascal.
MORALITY AND RELIGION
If from the beginning of time religion has exerted so
profound an influence on the life, the feelings, and the
actions of individuals and societies, this is apparently
because it Is a vital force, a living thing, and not
merely a system of formulas and abstractions ; because
it concerns not only the thought but the being. It is
essentially a motive force, a source of love, of will, and
of strength. If it is still suspected by science, is not
this because it lives by elements which science as such
does not know and has not succeeded in bringing within
its sphere ? Now such elements are precisely the faith,
the hope, and the love which morality requires.
Moral faith is an action of the will directed toward
duty, and duty implies a higher object, in the presence
of which man's attitude is respect, reverence, and
obedience.
Moral hope is an action of the intelligence by which
it conceives what tradition calls God, — in other words,
the union of perfection and existence.
The love which morality connotes is an action of the
feelings, which surpasses the natural power of the will.
One loves as one can, not as one wishes, according to
the voice of nature. The command to love, if it means
anything at all, comes from a power higher than nature.
245
246 FRENCH EDUCATIONAL IDEALS OF TODAY
In fact, if one considers a certain historical phenom-
enon, which is commonly held to be religion, I mean
Christianity, one sees in the first place the three vir-
tues that morality presupposes. What, then, is the
exact relationship between morality and religion?
ReUgion is the flight of the soul which, bom in the
source of being, conceives a transcendent ideal and, in
order to strive for it, acquires a force greater than the
force of nature. Its essential characteristic is that it
creates an ideal of existence and energies capable of
realizing that ideal. It is recognized by this charac-
teristic : that it proceeds from the duty to the capacity
for doing it and not vice versa.
Moral philosophy is an effort of the reason to formu-
late in terms of the intellect the conception of a higher
life and to derive from it rules applicable to all men in
a given society, and even to all men without exception.
If the motto of religion is perfection, that of morality
is universality. "Be ye perfect, even as your heavenly
Father is perfect," is the command of the Gospel.
"Act so that the maxim of your will can at the same
time be vahd as a principle of universal legislation,"
is Kant's formula.
So the struggle to the bitter end between morality
and religion, even in our society, is not the only solu-
tion conceivable. Let moral philosophy become con-
scious of the postulates it implies. Let it not be satis-
fied merely to classify and systematize its logical
principles, but let it rather consider its foundation and
the conditions for its realization. Let it strive to be,
and not merely to know, and its hostile attitude to-
ward religion will disappear.
fiMILE BOUTROUX 247
Doubtless it can present itself as a distinct discipline
and profess what is called neutrality. But this neu-
trality, far from openly or surreptitiously aiming to
ridicule the belief in God, will keep open those avenues
of the soul through which religious beliefs penetrate.
It will be tolerant, not merely as one is tolerant toward
a mind which one considers stunted or misguided and
unable as yet to grasp a higher point of view ; it will
profess a sincere respect for all beliefs which show an
orientation of the soul toward truth. And this very
respect will be increased twofold by the sympathy which
all things hfiman should awaken in the heart of man.
On the other hand, religion, if it remains faithful
to its highest traditions, will consist essentially in the
free, generous, and fruitful life of the spirit, in the
effort to promote, by communion of souls under divine
influence, the advent of the "kingdom of God," that
is to say, of the reign of justice and love. These vis-
ible and external characteristics of religion, as they
continue to translate the divine into the language of
men, will be brought ever closer to the invisible world,
and will be interpreted according to this same relation,
lest the letter, under the influence of the natural law
of habit, be substituted for the spirit. Then sooner or
later will come a day when morality and religion . . .
will be as amazed that they have fought each other as
two persons who, after having mistakenly believed
themselves enemies, perceive, on better acquaintance,
that they have always agreed on essential points. . . .
Not only in fiction, but in real life as well, certain
dramas pregnant with catastrophe end with a scene of
reconciliation.
LE PERE LABERTHONNIERE
Le Pere Laberthonniere, member of the Congregation of the
Oratory ; director of the College of Juilly ; director of the Annals
of Christian Philosophy; one of the principal representatives of
the science of education in the Catholic world.
AUTHORITY IN EDUCATION ^
When we ask ourselves from the individualistic point
of view by what right the educator exerts his authority,
we find no answer. It is not so much a question of his
right, as of his duty ; for if he had only a right, he
could refrain from exercising it with impunity. But
the educator who is conscious of his task, who does not
wish either to abandon the children to themselves or
to enslave and make tools of them, feels himself so
identified with his pupils that their ignorance, their
troubles, their faults, weigh upon him as though they
were his own and as if he were responsible for them.
Thus, although he corrects them from a sense of duty,
and not by \drtue of exercising a right, the punish-
ments which he inflicts and the efforts he asks them to
make cause him to suffer as though he were correcting
himself. In reality he interferes in their life as he in-
terferes in his own and for the same reason. It is
faith which makes him act, a faith which lifts him out
of himself, above temporal things and individual in-
terests. Otherwise there is no education. And this
faith which leads him to act is also the faith he in-
spires in others in order to raise them also above
themselves, to induce them to work with him and to
attain an end which will be as much theirs as his. By
* From ThSorie de VSducation, pages 23 et seq.
248
LE PERE LABERTHONNlfiRE 249
such sincerity of purpose, the man and the educator
are one. . . .
There is always authority, an authority which re-
mains firm in order not to fail in its mission. But it is
not a harsh and rigorous law, without flexibility or life,
a stern categorical imperative. . . . No more is it a
will which imposes itself on others merely in order to
dominate them. It is a will which devotes itself to
other wills in order to assist and supplement them.
And finally it develops that the authority of the edu-
cator rests in his own conscience, a conscience where
God reigns, *^ which lives, which manifests itself by
doing, which radiates and makes itself felt by acting
on others at the same time that it acts on itself.
People keep reiterating that education should de-
velop personal initiative in the child. They repeat in
every key that to educate one is to teach him to think,
to will, in a word to live independently. Doubtless
they are right, but they do not pay sufficient attention
to the conditions for obtaining this result. Although
this statement is easy to make, we must nevertheless
recognize that it is less easy to put into practice ; for it
is not a question of commanding, directing, and mold-
ing at pleasure, while taking into account only one's
own force and ability. Educative authority is not the
mastery exerted over things, over animals, and over
slaves, if it really fulfills its function, if it really applies
itself to developing personal initiative, to forming men
capable of thinking, willing, and living by themselves,
instead of dominating them and subordinating them to
its private ends, instead of trying to control or use
them in one way or another, under one pretext or an-
250 FRENCH EDUCATIONAL IDEALS OF TODAY
other. Otherwise it becomes unnecessary, and may
easily be dispensed with. Hence only through self-
sacrifice can it remain faithful to its mission. It is
therefore necessary not only that the teacher should
allow, but that he should positively wish, the pupil to
be master of himself in the fullest possible degree, with
a firm and lofty conception of his own personality.
It is not a matter, as one frequently hears, of mold-
ing individuals ; for this expression might imply that
the educator works on malleable material which re-
acts only in response to objective influence. On the
other hand, neither is it entirely a question of respect-
ing individual rights and liberty; for at the outset
one has to do only with potential liberties and rights
which are quite unaware of their own existence. The
purpose is rather to help individuals become con-
scious of themselves, of their duties, of their responsi-
bilities. The purpose is to awaken their intellectual
and moral nature, in a word, to bring them to life, for
education is truly travail.
And like travail it is a labor of love, dehberately
planned, not for oneself, but for another, love which is
not in danger of perishing, and which attains its end
freely, thoroughly conscious of what it is doing. Edu-
cational authority escapes being oppressive on account
of its essentially loving nature. A little while ago we
expressed the same truth when we said that it should
act only through self-sacrifice.
Education, then, can be but a work of charity.
Otherwise there exists in education an irreducible an-
tinomy. Let it be understood that we are using this
word in its full Christian sense, the sense in which St.
LE PfiRE LABERTHONNIERE 251
Paul used it. People have endeavored to make charity
mean something else, a condescension which renders
service for its own satisfaction or advantage. This is
substituting sham for reality. There is charity only
if there is real sacrifice of self to another. And as soon
as one intervenes in the life of another — and that is
what education must do to a certain extent — in order
not to take possession of him, it is necessary to love
him and to forget self.
If the authority of the educator occasionally has the
appearance of a constraining force, this is only ap-
parent. In'^reality, in its sincerity, in all its diverse
forms, it is always a force which constantly gives itself.
It does not intervene in the lives of others in order to
possess them, but rather to furnish them the means of
becoming real masters of themselves. It is a soul
which nourishes other souls with its own substance so
that they may live and grow, so that they may give
themselves in their turn, and in their turn accomplish
the work of humanity.
MGR. ALFRED BAUDRILLART
Mgr. Alfred Baudrillart ( 1 85 9- ) , former student at the higher
normal school; agrege in history and geography; rector of the
Catholic Institute at Paris; vicar-general of Paris; author of
many historical works.
ON THE TEACHING OF HISTORY ^
Like Montaigne, we desire well-trained, not over-
crowded, minds, and we believe with Plutarch that
the child mind is not an empty vessel that we must
fill, but a hearth that we must warm. History with
its great examples will help us accomplish our end if
it be true, as Plato has said, that one always ends by
resembling in some way those whom one admires.
For history with its great examples is indeed that
magistra vita of which Cicero has spoken. The study
of history gives us a certain maturity. In lieu of the
experience that comes with age, we acquire that of
bygone centuries.
History teaches lessons in personal moraHty. We
leam, for instance, from St. Louis, the arbiter of
Europe, that justice is supreme wisdom, and from
Louis XI, caught in his own trap, that disloyalty is
seldom a good adviser. Sometimes even a mere de-
tail, apparently insignificant, will help us in our effort
to find the good.
The Prince of Conde once harshly reprimanded one
of his officers. Scarcely had he uttered the words
when he regretted them. A few minutes afterwards,
he asked the same officer to help him with his coat.
^ Extract from an address at the distribution of prizes at the lycee of
Laval, August 1, 1882. Uenseignement catholique dans la France eontem-
poraine, Paris, 1910.
252
MGR. ALFRED BAUDRILLART 253
The officer, who felt the prince's change of heart,
smiled and said, "You are trying to make friends
again?" The prince immediately threw open his arms
to the officer and embraced him warmly. If per-
chance this story occurs to us on a day when we have
yielded to a fit of temper, and we also want to make
friends again, let us do so with the same frankness
and simplicity as did the conqueror of Rocroi.
But it is especially as the great inspiration of public
and national morality that we shall consider history.
Who, indeed, tells the French youth what France is?
His family?^ Very rarely. Society? More rarely
still. It is at school that the child learns to know his
country. The teacher of history tells him what France
was in the past and what she is at the present day,
why he should love her past, and why he should love
her now. These two loves are not mutually exclusive.
More than once in the Galerie des Armes of the Paris
Museum of Artillery I have seen soldiers studying
the French warriors of former days. They filed in
front of those figures clad in hauberk, cuirass, and
jerkin, and armed with mace, lance, and musket.
Did they laugh at this equipment? Not at all. Far
from laughing, they repeatedly said to one another
that under the trappings of a bygone day, as well
as under the modern great coat, at Bouvines as well
as St. Privat,^ our men marched with the same courage
, against the same enemy. Does not this figurative
union of the old army and the new typify the still
*[St. Privat, a village of the Department of the Moselle, where on August
18, 1870, the French to the number of 26,000 with 78 guns heroically fought
against 90,000 Prussians with 280 guns.
254 FRENCH EDUCATIONAL IDEALS OF TODAY
nobler union between the old and the new France?
Indeed, how our native country shone at certain epochs
with a dazzling luster ! I confess that I never could
behold without great emotion the picture of the de-
velopment of our race during those centuries which
are disdainfully referred to as the "Dark Ages," —
I mean the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.
"From 1100 to 1300," says 1. 1. Weiss, "the knights
of France with their followers appear everywhere,
founding French empires, principalities, kingdoms,
and colonies. We are too likely to forget that almost
at the same moment there was a French king at Naples,
and in Sicily, a French king at Jerusalem, a French
king in Cyprus, a French emperor in Constantinople,
French princes at Antioch, in Silicia, in Morea, and at
Corfu; there was even a French king in London, for
our language, our prowess, and our laws ruled England
during two hundred years. For one or two centuries
the name of France was what the name of Rome had
been, and an illustrious Italian writer, Dante's master,
Brunetto Latini, entitled one of his works 'On the
Universality of the French Language.' "
"VMien this idea of the traditional unity of the French
nation is impressed upon the hearts of our young men,
it will be easier to cultivate in them that love of country
which the teacher of history should inculcate before
everything else. "The unity of French history is the
unity of France herself," said Jules Ferry. "We have
before us children who will all become soldiers, men
on whom peace will impose all kinds of seK-restraint,
and war all kinds of sacrifice."
In one of the great parliamentary debates on the
MGR. ALFRED BAUDRILLART 255
army bill, M. Thiers spoke of our poor recruits. "You
are taking from our society men who have had no share
in our education, who have not been fed on the great
examples of history, and to each of them you are say-
ing: *Thou shalt not think of thy well-being whilst
everything around thee is at peace, and when it be-
comes necessary thou shalt bear the cold and the
heat. Thou shalt throw thyself into the ice of the
Beresina and die to save the army. Thou shalt suffer
the torrid heat of Africa, and thine honor and glory
shall be death under the flag.'"
Bonaparte well knew the force of example when,
going back to ancient history, he cited the example
of the Roman legions to his soldiers during the cam-
paigns of Italy and Egypt. "Those legions," he said,
"which you have sometimes imitated, but never yet
equaled." And our soldiers went on enduring priva-
tion and fatigue, fighting one against ten. "Our
ambition," said the valiant Pellport, "was to equal the
Romans." Modest as they were, these soldiers were
heroic. Little did they suspect that one day as new
Romans they would themselves become models for
others.
Remember K16ber's foot soldiers, who for a moment
succumbed to exhaustion, but who rose up again
at the call of honor. After a long march in the desert,
panting and worn out, they refused to carry their
wounded. K16ber ran up to them: "Wretched
men," he exclaimed, "you are cowards, not soldiers.
To be a soldier means that a man is not to eat when
he is hungry, not to drink when he is thirsty, to go on
walking when he is worn out with fatigue, and when
256 FRENCH EDUCATIONAL IDEALS OF TODAY
he can no longer carry himself, to carry his wounded
comrades. Such is the soldier's duty, wretched men!
Take back your wounded on your shoulders!" And
the soldiers took back the wounded.
Was I under a kind of spell .^^ I do not know, but
when I was quoting to my pupils in the classroom this
anecdote and others of the same sort, I seemed to be
looking into the future, yonder, the very distant
future. Under the burning sun of our colonies, I could
see one of the boys who was listening to me. He, too,
was on the point of succumbing, when he suddenly
remembered this incident of the history class, and like
a cordial the memory of it revived his courage. For
myself, too, this vision has often acted as a cordial.
At times teachers, too, have need of cordials.
JULES PAYOT
Jules Payot (1859- ), agrege in philosophy; rector of the
Academy of Aix; author of Education de la volonU, which has
been widely translated, L'iducation de la dSjnocraiie, and various
other books.
MILITARY SERVICE AND SELF-CONTROL ^
Today schoolmasters are obliged to serve in the army.
The time spent in active service may become very
profitable to those young men who enlist with full
consciousness of the greatness of their future calling.
To those ^ who think seriously, entering the army
is a solemn step, for it signifies the acknowledgment
of the insignificance of individual life and will, in con-
trast with the well-being of one's native land. It
means recognition of the inconsequential character of
our egoism and the acceptance of the truth that we
possess no real value in ourselves, unless our will can
cooperate with the wills of thousands of our fellow
countrymen. By its mere existence the army sets
us an example of brotherhood and joint responsi-
bility, because there all isolated effort obviously be-
comes ineffectual.
Acknowledgment by soldiers and leaders of a prin-
ciple outweighing any individual interest, and implicit
acceptance of the sacrifice of the life of each to this
principle, ennobles the slightest act of everyday serv-
ice in the army. . . .
For the soldier, subordination is the daily practical
form of duty. It does not imply annihilation of the
will of the individual, but rather the contrary, for as
/ * Courtesy of Armand Colin et Cie.
257
258 FRENCH EDUCATIONAL IDEALS OF TODAY
the thoughts of the true poet gain in force and pre-
cision through conforming to the laws of metrical
language, so the will of a true soldier gains in strength
and energy by subordinating itself to the regulations
of military discipline.
The "teacher-soldier" who ennobles the most
arduous tasks by fixing his thoughts on the great
patriotic duty he is performing will also find in daily
military life fine opportunities for will-control. In
order that he may be able to turn these opportunities
to good account, it will suffice for him fully to under-
stand the necessity for discipline of all kinds, and
willingly to accept the consequences resulting from the
performance of his duty to his country.
From this very moment, while the poor soldier
(that is, the narrow-minded man, fond of ease and a
slave to comfort, idleness, and pleasure) will find
reasons for complaint everywhere, the "teacher-
soldier" contentedly accepts the inflexible regulations
of military discipline, their regularity, and the prompt-
ness required even in acts of the slightest importance.
Early rising affords an opportunity for overcoming
indolence of body, for everybody, whether he complies
willingly or not, is obliged to rise. The exercise of the
will is easy in this case, for it merely consists in per-
forming quickly and cheerfully what one cannot refuse
to do. Again, the cleanliness required, the prompt-
ness exacted, are valuable acquisitions in self-discipline.
The fatigue of marching renders the body supple;
the promptness and precision demanded in drill and
exercises keep the mind continually on the alert.
As the training of the will consists in overcoming
JULES PAYOT 259
sloth, ejffeminacy, and bodily indolence, and in fight-
ing against any tendency to selfishness, irritability of
temper, or pride, so, letting thoughts and acts be
guided by some truly stimulating moral principle, we
easily see that no life can be compared to that of a
soldier in opportunities of development in the train-
ing of the will.
In short, a teacher may gain real moral advantage
through military service. With his regiment he will
learn the great lesson of self-effacement which the
army teaches ; he will come to feel the insignificance
of the individual where there is no solidarity ; he will
direct his energy toward the control of his body and
toward subordinating individual wishes and instincts
to the higher law of patriotism.
Upon resuming his duties in school, he will be quite
prepared to carry on the great work of self-control,
and to let his thoughts and acts be guided by the
manly discipline of duty, which increases the effective-
ness of individual effort an hundred-fold by bringing
into collaboration the efforts of noble minds.
LOUIS LIARD
Louis Liard (1846-1917), lycee teacher, professor of philosophy,
rector of the Academy of Caen, director of higher education at the
ministry of public instruction, successor of Greard in the vice-
rectorship of the University of Paris (1902), member of the higher
coimcil of public instruction, member of the Institute, grand oflScer
of the Legion of Honor. Administrator, philosopher, author of
UenseigneTnent sup&rieur en France, and numerous books on phi-
losophy and education.
THE PLACE OF SCIENCE IN SECONDARY
EDUCATION
In secondary education, the study of science, as well
as of all other subjects, should contribute to build up
the complete man. If the sciences do this, they too, in
their own way and in the broad sense of the term, are
humanities, "scientific humanities," as one of the most
ardent partisans of classical culture has not hesi-
tated to call them. Their proper function is to co-
operate with the means best suited to this end in
cultivating in the mind whatever helps to ascertain
scientific truth : observation, comparison, classifica-
tion, and the capacity for planning experiments and
discovering analogies; to awaken and develop that
sense of the real and the possible which is not less
important than the idealistic spirit; finally, and
thereby they become latent but none the less effective
teachers of philosophy, it is their function to teach
the mind not to think in fragments but to understand
that every fragment is part of a whole. Thus they
possess that general character which is commonly
regarded as typical of the varied course of study af-
forded by secondary instruction.
860
LOUIS LIARD 261
Properly to perform this function, it is evident that
the teaching of science should appeal especially to the
active powers of the mind, to that very activity by
means of which the sciences are built up. Doubtless
memory has a part to play in scientific instruction,
but not the principal part. The purpose is to create
accurate perception of facts, power to distinguish be-
tween the real and the unreal, between the true and
the false, and to attain both accuracy of reasoning
and a clear realization of what can be established with
certainty. Consequently, there is nothing more con-
trary to true scientific teaching than to pour into a
passive brain through books or even by word of mouth
— notwithstanding the superiority of the latter means
of transmission — a mass of abstractions and facts
to be learned by heart. This immediately becomes
verbahsm, in other words a scourge. On the con-
trary, the end in view is to create spontaneity in the
pupil, to bring his mental capacity into play, to pro-
mote personal effort on his part, in short to make
him capable of action. The old adage of the phi-
losopher, "knowing is doing," is always true. Here
as elsewhere what really benefits the student is what
he can produce, not what he can reproduce.
I pass on to less general remarks concerning the
different sciences. It is asserted that for the last
twenty years mathematics has been passing through
a crisis of transcendental idealism. It is supposed
to have risen to dizzy heights and to have lost sight
of the earth and of space itself. One cannot regret
this, since as a consequence we have work of the first
rank which does honor to French genius. And then.
262 FRENCH EDUCATIONAL IDEALS OF TODAY
who knows? Some day, perhaps, out of "hyper-
space" there will come to us one of those discoveries
which change the face of things. But that which is
in place in higher education is not in its proper place
in secondary education. I am told that in the last few
years methods not devoid of danger have penetrated into
the former under the influence of the highest speculation.
Let us not lose sight of the fact that in our classes we
are to form, not candidates for the Section of Higher
Analysis in the Academy of Sciences, but clear heads
that can see accurately and reason accurately.
This being the case, is it well to start pupils from the
beginning with purely nominal definitions? Is it
well to install symbols in their minds as rules before
having thoroughly taught them what those symbols
mean, and to let them struggle with the interminable
expansion of these symbols in the abstract without
frequent recurrence to realities? Is it well to teach
them a science parallel to mechanics without showing
them, if only on a bicycle, the parts of a real machine
and the transmission of real movement? Is it well,
instead of showing them the planets in the heavens,
to confine oneself to pointing out "orbs" on the black-
board, so that for them there exist, not the real sun
and the real moon, but merely the "sun and moon of
the classroom " ? ^;
Does it not follow that many of our students, baffled
from the start and perceiving no connection between
mathematics and reality, imagine that they have to
do with an impenetrable world, accessible only to
some few specially constructed minds, and for this
reason make no effort to penetrate further? Does
LOUIS LIARD 263
it not follow that even those who have been able to
grasp the subject by continually living in the abstract
without frequent enough reversion to realities come
to consider mathematics as logic, as a convention,
and as a game ? If we are not careful, this may shortly
become verbalism — in other words, the thing that is
least instructive in the world.
One word now about the natural sciences. It is
here that the verbalism is to be feared. These sciences
have so many things to name, and they employ such
scientific nomenclature, that their aspect suflSces to
give the child the illusion of knowledge. Pasting labels
on brains is really not doing the work of an educator.
Another obstacle in this same line is the abuse of
detail. Before being synthetical, the natural sciences
are analytical, and they delve deep into analysis.
This is not a reason for pretending to initiate the
students, even those of the philosophy form, into all
the details of organisms and for making them learn
interminable lists of muscles, vessels, and apophyses.
On the other hand there is a different obstacle in the
abuse of biological metaphysics. I approve of its
being taught in graduate work. There it is in place;
it is a stimulus to research. But in the lycee, and
especially in the sixth and fifth forms where it has
sometimes been found, is it not a contradiction and a
danger ? — a contradiction, because this biological
metaphysics is valuable only as the provisional synthe-
sis of an infinite number of facts which the student
cannot know; a danger, because it transforms into
dogmatism a training which should first of all devote
itself to teaching things. Certainly I should not
264 FRENCH EDUCATIONAL IDEALS OF TODAY
wish to eliminate every allusion to the hypotheses of
scientists concerning life, but I believe in employing
them provided they are used legitimately, and that
only those portions are utihzed which can illumine the
way of the pupil across the very limited number of facts
which are known to him.
It seems to me easy to avoid these obstacles if one
is convinced that the teaching of the natural sciences
in the lycee should be an educational discipline, and
not a burdening of the memory. First, accurate per-
ception of facts will cultivate the faculty of observation ;
then, comparison of facts will cultivate the faculty of
comparison ; finally, following these comparisons, prac-
tical connections established between facts will cultivate
the faculty of generalization, thus giving the first con-
ception of law, the first stirring of the scientific sense.
In each one of these steps it is essential that the
pupil, large or small, act for himself as far as possible,
first in order to see. At the outset his eye can read,
but can it see, and see accurately.'^ This it must be
taught to do. Always take pains to show the things
themselves, not from a distance as at the theater, but
close by, very close by, making sure that the pupil
perceives them exactly. Then make comparisons,
which in fact is still seeing, but seeing simultaneously
or in succession and distinguishing, among several
objects, the unlike from the like. Finally, comes
generalization, or passing from facts to concepts.
With systematic direction and well-timed help is it
impossible that a pupil of average intelligence should
manage to grasp the common characteristics of the
objects he is comparing.'^ If one is careful to choose
LOUIS LIARD «65
but a limited number of types, selecting them for their
significance and trimming them down to their es-
sential features, is it impossible to make him climb by
himself, as if from story to story, toward those general
relations which prove the continuity and the unity
of biological phenomena? And later, in the upper
classes, if one applies oneself to making the student
notice the determinism of vital phenomena, the relation
between organ and function, the coordination of organs
and functions, if by means of a few well-chosen ex-
amples f roi^ the works of the great scientists he is then
shown how scientific discovery is made, noting the
relative importance of imagination and experiment,
is it impossible to make experimental study of the
natural sciences contribute to the highest develop-
ment of his intellect ?
Perhaps too great a place in the education of French
youth cannot be given to the physical sciences. This
country, which is before all else of an idealistic and
deductive turn of mind, needs to plunge into realism.
Not that it has not already made many discoveries
in the experimental sciences, great discoveries which
are beginnings and which need afterwards an army of
workers to make them effective; but on the whole
the scientific education of the French youth seems to
have been turned too much toward abstract mathe-
matics and not enough toward experimental science.
Without speaking here of practical utility, which con-
tinues to increase daily, it is from experimental science
that we derive two essential notions, two habits of
thought which are fundamental : the notion of "posi-
tive truth," that is to say of a fact established by ex-
266 FRENCH EDUCATIONAL IDEALS OF TODAY
periment, and with it the habit of looking upon a fact
as a fact which must be taken into account and which
can be governed or modified only by other facts;
secondly, the more general notion of natural law,
that is to say of the relation of individual facts among
themselves, and at the same time the habit of con-
sidering objective truth independent of our desires
and of our wishes.
In this order of science nothing less than a com-
plete change of method was requisite. Under the
influence of causes already remote, which are un-
necessary to recall here, science was long taught by
methods which could only give the pupils an idea
diametrically opposed to its true nature. By the
method of exposition, teachers presented science from
the deductive point of view. First of all the law was
announced in the form of a theorem ; then followed its
demonstration, always as if it were merely a theorem.
Only later did the fact come to light, and then it
appeared as an illustration and not as the source of the
law. As the experiment was finally presented, it be-
came merely an aid to the memory, associating an image
with a formula. Today the experimental sciences
proceed in exactly the opposite fashion.
The more the minds of our race are inclined to pro-
ceed to the highest generalizations by a method of
leaps and bounds, in order subsequently to treat every-
thing deductively, the more necessary it is to incul-
cate in them in youth an exact sense of what is real,
and with this end in view to teach them real facts,
following the same order in which the human mind
estabhshes and explains these facts.
JULES TANNERY
Jules Tannery (1848-1910), student in the scientific section of
the Higher Normal School in the rue d'Ulm. Agrege in 1869, he
taught successively in the boys' lycees at Rennes, Caen, and at the
lycee St. Louis in Paris. After substituting for a short time at
the Sorbonne, he was appointed lecturer at the Higher Normal
School (1881), and three years later he became head of the science
section and assistant director of the school, continuing to discharge
this double function until his death. In 1882 he was appointed
lecturer in mathematics at the Higher Normal School for Girls
which had just been founded at Sevres. In 1907 he was elected a
member of the Paris Academy of Sciences.
The different functions he thus performed gave him an oppor-
tunity to exert a great influence on the development of education
in France in aH its stages. The way in which this influence was
exerted may be gathered from the extracts given below. Jules
Tannery had a remarkably keen and penetrating mind, which could
have been turned to literary study as well as to a scientific career.
His pedagogical influence will survive him, thanks to the scholarly
works he has published and the pupils he was able to train.
THE TEACHING OF ELEMENTARY GEOMETRY
"Mathematics," says Descartes at the beginning of
the Discourse on Method, "has very subtle inventions
which can be of great service, as well to satisfy the
curious as to facilitate the arts and lighten the work
of mankind." As for facilitating the arts, that is
very uncertain. Lightening the work of mankind,
however, appears to me more doubtful ; in fact, it is
the contrary that we see. The first part of the great
geometrician's oft-quoted phrase has always reminded
me of the "goose game that we have revived from the
Greeks — well adapted to pass the time when there
is nothing to do," and I am fairly sure that the pre-
vailing conception in the teaching profession is that
mathematics exists to satisfy the curious.
267
268 FRENCH EDUCATIONAL IDEALS OF TODAY
Our teaching easily becomes ornamental. We ex-
cuse ourselves for its superfluousness by harping upon
the training of the mind to which everything else must
be sacrificed, and we apply the fine epithet "disin-
terested" to that teaching whose uselessness stares us
in the face. Let us discard all such twaddle.
Disinterestedness is a fine thing. This is no place
to speak of the interest some people have in conserv-
ing the teaching they call "disinterested," — that could
not apply to any of the readers of the Revue; but
really why is not one disinterested when one strives
to be useful to others? To be ashamed of utility,
what foolishness ! Whatever answers to man's needs,
whatever affords him satisfaction, is useful. The
utility of a subject is in a way the measure of its hu-
manity. It is not worth while, perhaps, to say that
there are various and sundry needs, and that scientific
teaching does not pretend to satisfy them all; but I
certainly should like people to discontinue this re-
proach of "utilitarianism" directed at those who
think that teaching should consider the needs of the
taught.
As for training the mind, with which it is certain we
should be occupied in primary teaching as elsewhere,
I ask in what way uselessness helps matters. Do you
flatter yourselves that children seldom suspect this
uselessness, or that their vague misgivings spur them
on to effort? On the contrary, is it not the real
reason for the lassitude that comes over them, for this
disgust with intellectual work that one meets so fre-
quently in school and lycee ?
To satisfy the curious is very well; but first we
JULES TANNERY 269
may have to awaken the curiosity. Do you think
that children of thirteen or fourteen have a natural
taste for logical abstractions, for empty reasoning, for
demonstrations that seem to them far less clear than
the statement of the problem ? Doubtless they must
be taught to reason well, but to reason about realities,
or at least about models or pictures that come some-
where near reality, that are simplified forms of what
they see and touch. They must be shown the facility
which, according to Descartes, geometry brings to all
the arts. How should this drawing be made? How
should that field be measured ?
As Clairant in his Elements of Geometry explains
how a triangle is determined by its base and the two
base angles, he shows how the distance of an inac-
cessible point may be found by constructing on the
ground a triangle equal to a triangle of which the dis-
tance sought is one of the sides. He uses for this only
rude instruments easy to devise and construct, but
he gives the solution of a little riddle which will fix
in the mind of the pupil one of the cases of the equality
of triangles. Later the same principle permits Clairant
to illustrate the corresponding case in the theory of
similitude. According to my way of thinking, that
is the order of ideas which ought to be taken up with
beginners. They will have to reason about objects;
they must be taught to look at objects, to eliminate
this or that feature which does not interest the geo-
metrician, to simplify them, to recognize their essential
characteristics, to see them in their geometrical as-
pect, to reproduce them by drawing, to fix their
knowledge by measurement. Far from teaching our
270 FRENCH EDUCATIONAL mEALS OF TODAY
pupils to be on their guard against intuition, show
them that they already possess it, gradually give them
confidence in themselves. First of all we must in-
terest them; tediimi with its consequent depression
is the real enemy. As soon as possible, let the effort
demanded of the child bring its own reward. I might
say much on this subject, on the number of bored
youths who come out of our lycees, about the silly
creatures who have come to regard boredom as a mark
of distinction. With regard to those who will not have
the means of acquiring such distinction, it is quite
useless to make them taste in school the boredom that
they will not have the time to cultivate in after life.
Even though it is clear what the truly logical teach-
ing of the beginnings of geometry should be,^ no one
would dare require it.
M. Poincare thus expresses himself in his anxiety
to have perfect logical precision, freed from all intui-
tion, of which I have already spoken : "It is useless
to point out how disastrous it (i.e., perfectly logical
precision) would be in teaching or how harmful to
the development of the minds of our pupils; what a
* M. Tannery had previously set forth in the first part of this article
the work of logically rebuilding the foundations of geometry which had
been realized in the nineteenth century. In it he called attention to the
way the fundamental axioms were submitted to a minute criticism which
had for results :
(1) To reSstablish the entire series of standard propositions in a manner
rigorously accurate but extremely abstract, by starting from a system of
postulates which were accepted without demonstration but which were
necessary to this reconstruction and suflBcient for it.
(2) To construct by arbitrary negation of this or that postulate sev-
eral other geometries equally rigorous but different from the Euclidean
geometry.
JULES TANNERY 271
withering effect it would have on the seeker, whose
originality it would promptly suppress." M. Hilbert
considers twenty axioms distributed into five groups.
I shall cite several in order that all the divergence be-
tween the end he pursues and the end of elementary
teaching may be clearly seen :
If A, By and C are points on a straight line, and if B is between
A and C, B is between C and A.
If A and C are two points on a straight line, there are at least
one point B which is between A and C, and at least one point D
such that C is between A and D.
Of three points on a straight line, there is always one, and only
one, which lies between the others.
Who would maintain that the teaching of geometry to
children should be begun with propositions of this sort ?
But that is not all. The point is to teach the whole
geometry, being careful to rely only on the twenty
axioms and never to appeal to intuition. Who would
be capable of it ? Perhaps a few of the members of the
Section of Higher Mathematics in the Institute, and
even then not without taking a great deal of trouble.
Furthermore, I do not think I am going very far
wrong when I say that none of them would pretend to
be followed by many of his fellow members so closely
that he might ask them from time to time if it were
quite certain that he had not made a mistake.
What is the use of insisting upon following an im-
possible method which no one takes seriously? It
is indispensable because it is true that in logic one
should not, nay cannot, stop on the road, and if one
wishes to form pure logicians, one must go to the very
end of the Euclidean method. . . .
272 FRENCH EDUCATIONAL mEALS OF TODAY
Let us have the courage, then, to make up our minds
to show things to children and rid them of that reason-
ing which, I repeat, seems to them much more obscure
than the proposition itself. At least in elementary
work we can follow such a course with profit, teaching
the children geometry first and allowing them to see
many results that they consider obvious. We can
begin to train them in geometrical reasoning, have
them discover interesting properties in figures that
they had not seen at first, lead them up to a few of the
statements in which the intuition and the informal
arguments that satisfied them hitherto shall no longer
suffice. Then, if need be, we can set a few of those
little traps where intuition will lead them astray, so
that the mistake they fall into may astonish and dis-
turb them while at the same time it amuses them.
Thus they will feel the necessity of turning back and
tightening their reasoning, of establishing a solid basis,
a treasure-house of very positive truths.
It is not important as yet that this store should be
perfectly organized. Let us not stop to inventory
it curiously, or to study carefully its constituent parts,
to eliminate everything that is not indispensable.
Let the child understand thoroughly how to use it
and then let him refrain from drawing upon outside
sources. Some day, perhaps, he will apply a process
of selection and will wish to get on with more meager
resources. This will be the proper time to satisfy him.
ALFRED CROISET
Alfred Croiset (1845- ), professor of Greek and dean of the
faculty of letters at the Sorbonne ; ^member of the , Institute, and
one of the principal founders of the Ecole des Hautes Etudes Sociales.
Among other works he has published a "History of Greek Litera-
tiu-e" (1887) and numerous lectures to be found in the volumes of
the Biblioth^que GinSrale des Sciences Sociales.
THE STUDY OF LATIN AND GREEK AND
THE DEMOCRACY 1
The study of Greek and Latin is now very much under
fire. Many good people are convinced that in second-
ary educatioti there would be everything to gain from
eliminating Greek and Latin. They would like to see
these two languages reserved for specialists, as are
Arabic and Sanskrit, and give their places in the class-
room to modern foreign languages, science, and the
mother tongue.
For my part, I hold the opposite view. I believe
that Greek and Latin still have an important part to
play in our democratic society. But I will acknowledge
that the question deserves examination, that the
reasons which until now have been responsible for the
preponderance of Greek and Latin may no longer be
valid, and that the methods which have been in use
since the Renaissance may no longer answer our needs.
The study of Greek and Latin is not the unique
and sacrosanct form of secondary culture. I can
easily conceive a very good type of secondary instruc-
tion without Latin and Greek, like that at present
given our girls. But for boys, whose minds are less
^ Extracts from a lecture delivered at the Ecole des HaiUes Etudes So-
ciales, 1903.
«7S
274 FRENCH EDUCATIONAL IDEALS OF 1X)DAY
supple and discriminating, especially if they are to
devote the greater part of their lives to intellectual pur-
suits, I hold that there is a great advantage to be de-
rived from first receiving the solid preparation afforded
by Greek and Latin, which will estabhsh their subse-
quent work upon a sounder and more secure basis.
The method to be adopted should be determined by
the conception of the end in view. We are not try-
ing to form amiable dilettanti, but vigorous minds,
capable of producing rich harvests of ideas and deeds,
thanks to the sound culture they have received. It is
in this measure and in this spirit that I believe in the
utility of Greek and Latin. Let us try to see in what
they can be useful and on what conditions.
Even the most determined adversaries of the classics
cannot disregard one essential point : that for us an-
cient times are not something distant and dead, foreign
to our present humanity, but that they constitute the
groundwork of our intellectual and moral culture.
They form a considerable part of ourselves. Our lit-
erature, our philosophy, our private and public moral-
ity, are all impregnated with classicism. We have the
ancient culture in our blood and in the very marrow
of our bones. The case of the Greek and Latin civil-
izations is not the same as that of the Oriental civiliza-
tions, which latter have influenced us but indirectly;
it is also different from that of the great modern civil-
izations, whose development has been parallel to ours
and whose influence on us has been intermittent.
The influence of the ancients has been continuous and
uninterrupted.
When we study their thought, we do not become
ALFRED CROISET 9,75
mere curious dilettanti. We go back to our own
origins; we take the river at its source, which is the
sole means of knowing it well and of not making a
mistake as to its direction. Ignorance of this part of
our origin would be ignorance of ourselves. Volun-
tary neglect of our past, of such a living and ever
present past, would be a real mutilation of our intel-
lect. We might as well close our eyes to everything
beyond the horizon of our present generation and
declare, for instance, that the French of the twentieth
century have no need of knowing what took place in
France during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
The whole question, then, is to know whether it is
practically possible to give our pupils a direct knowl-
edge of the original works. Now I believe that it is
not only possible but easy, and that there are very
important pedagogical reasons for keeping up the
study of the ancient languages and for permitting at
least a part of the younger generation to become di-
rectly acquainted with two literatures admirably
adapted to their education.
La Bruy^re's remark on the study of languages is
always true; this study is admirably suited to chil-
dren of a certain age, whose fresh memories are ca-
pable of retaining a rich vocabulary and whose inquisi-
tive minds take pleasure in every novelty.
Later the more vigorous intellect of the young man
will be more intent upon objects and upon ideas.
During the early years, however, the mere mastery of
words has an attraction for the child, and thus a quan-
tity of half -obscure notions enter imperceptibly into the
treasures of his mind, enriching it for the future.
276 FRENCH EDUCATIONAL IDEALS OF TODAY
Moreover, this is only natural, for the child learns
to think by learning to talk. His memory retains the
words first. The meaning of the words reveals itself
to him little by little, so that he finds he has acquired
ideas without being aware of it.
Even independently of the literary value of the text,
the pedagogical advantages of this study are very
great. . . .
What is translating ? It is re-thinking in a different
language the thought of the original author. The
child who translates is not forced to invent; but he
must understand, and understand with precision. He
must discriminate and avoid all approximation. He
must seek out in the limited store of French words in
his memory those words and expressions which will
set forth the given idea in its finest shades of meaning.
He would not have been capable of inventing the idea
himself, for it is a man's idea, and he is only a child,
but he makes it his own by the knowledge he acquires
of it. This calls for serious effort, but not for an effort
beyond his strength. In this struggle with a thought
that is stronger than his own, he gains strength im-
perceptibly, as if by a cleverly graded course of gym-
nastics.
Assuredly the modern foreign languages can also
furnish some good subject matter for translation, but
their qualities are not quite the same. Sometimes they
are too easy, for the modern nations have developed
along parallel lines and have borrowed much from each
other. Thus it has come about that in the different
modern languages there is a considerable portion which
is cosmopolitan, so to speak, and which is transcribed
ALFRED CROISET «77
rather than translated. In other respects these texts
are too difficult, or at least too far removed from our
own particular inclinations, for the non-cosmopolitan
portion of the modern languages often corresponds to
a particular turn of mind or disposition which scarcely
lends itself to a really French translation. It is not
the same with the ancient languages, which are equally
educative both through their similarity to our language
and through their differences from it. They are gen-
erally more concrete, more practical, more simple in
expression. ,. In this respect they are admirably adapted
to children. And although synthetical in their gram-
matical forms, a characteristic which obliges the child
to do some very useful analysis, they are analytical in
the general construction of their sentences and of their
thought. They unite imagination and reason, passion
and dialectic, in a truly exquisite harmony. They are
neither apocalyptic nor pedantic. They are reasonable
and luminous.
If we consider not only the languages but the liter-
atures of antiquity, the reasons for teaching Latin and
Greek will appear even more evident, and I dare say
that in order not to feel their value one would have to
have a strange lack of comprehension of the child's
aptitudes and of the needs of our pedagogy.
From this point of view, the chief merit of the
ancient literatures is the merit of being young. By
the nature of their ideas and sentiments they adapt
themselves very readily to the needs of education.
The highest ideas, those most useful for the formation
of the mind and character, stand forth in a light which
renders them easily accessible to the child.
278 FRENCH EDUCATIONAL IDEALS OF TODAY
Most of our own great writers are very complex and
scholarly, very highly civilized. They wrote for men
like themselves, on subjects and in a spirit that scarcely
conform to the needs of the child or even of the adoles-
cent. On the other hand, the ancient literatiu'es in
which young civilizations express themselves are
naturally simple, easily understood by young people
who are in the stage of individual development which
corresponds to that represented by Greek and Roman
society in the development of humanity.
Homer and Herodotus, literally speaking, are of the
same age as our children. The psychology of an
Achilles, even that of a Ulysses, cannot be equaled in
simplicity. Compare the soul of a hero of antiquity
with that of a Werther or a Faust. The narratives of
Herodotus are as good as fairy tales in their popular
naivete and careful grace. Nevertheless, this naive
simplicity is sublime. The stories of Leonidas, The-
mistocles, and Aristides are full of admirable teachings,
at once very noble and very readily understood by
young minds. Even the philosophy and the political
doctrines of antiquity are relatively simple. The ideas
which inspired Demosthenes are among those that a
young man can understand without trouble and can
enjoy with enthusiasm. The grandeur of Socrates is
very simple, and his profundity is full of good nature.
The Romans are a trifle less young, to be sure. How-
ever, if we make an exception of Horace, who is more
suited to grown men than to children, the principal
Latin classic writers express only ideas and sentiments
which our pupils can comprehend without diflSculty.
Almost the whole substance of the classics can be
ALFRED CROISET 279
offered to our pupils and assimilated by them, pro-
vided only the master know how to choose and curtail,
and provided he avoid becoming a slave to pedantic
scruples of literary fidelity or purism.
The ancients, I repeat, are our contemporaries,
even more than the men of the seventeenth century.
They express the ideas which form the basis of our
civilization. They express these ideas with a sim-
plicity which divests them of their seeming diflBculties
and withdraws them from all minor discussions with
which subsequent ages have enshrouded them, to show
them to us anew in their radiant purity.
Again, their distinguishing mark is that their beauty
consists in harmonious reason. Of course they lack
neither imagination, nor passion, nor even sensibility,
but it is not in these qualities that they stand unrivaled ;
it is rather in their easy balance, their beautifully
simple arrangement, in the luminous beauty of the
whole and of detail which fully satisfies and delights
the reason. Now these are educative qualities in the
highest degree. Sensibility, imagination, and passion
are personal matters ; they are accidental, variable
characteristics, which it is hardly useful and which it
may be dangerous to cultivate. Reason, on the con-
trary, serves everybody under all circumstances. We
cannot strengthen it too piuch. It is the universal
language by means of which men understand each
other and draw nearer to one another.
MADAME JULES FAVRE
Madame Jules Favre (1833-1896) was the first directress of the
higher normal school established at Sevres immediately after the
passage of the law providing for secondary education of girls. She
was head of the school from 1881 until her death in 1896. From
her youth she had been connected with private schools where,
under a woman whose memory she revered, Mademoiselle Frere-
jean, she had gained an experience which had in no way paralyzed
her spirit of initiative. Her marriage with the great orator Jules
Favre had brought her in close touch with the tragic events of
1870-1871. Thus necessarily her conception of education was en-
larged and ennobled, and its intellectual, moral, and social as-
I>ects were intimately united. Without pretension and without
claiming to possess a philosophic or pedagogic system, she had
very firm convictions, and was in the fullest and best sense of the
word a directress. The following extracts are chosen chiefly from
the letters which she untiringly wrote to her former pupils, who
consulted her on all their difficulties, from the details of their daily
lives to problems of teaching and administration and the affairs of
conscience.
EXTRACTS FROM THE LETTERS OF MADAME
JULES FAVRE
While aspiring to that which seems most noble, do
not despair if you do not attain it in spite of your
efforts. Life is a constant struggle, which must be
endured meekly and with perseverance. Emotional
ecstasy is never the final result, and it is usually fol-
lowed by fits of weakness, possibly in order to teach us
not to relax and not to have too much ^^gfidence in
ourselves.
I must scold you, my dear child, not beciiuse you
tell me everything — that gives me much pl^sure —
but for your excessive distrust of yourself, which makes
you seek outside and above yourself for the inspiration
you need. I am not surprised at your trying experi-
MADAME JULES FAVRE 281
ences in that great intelligence factory. Certainly in-
spiration should come from the mind that directs, but
in such a large day school it seems to me very diflScult
to exert a moral influence. It is the sphere of the
teachers who are directly in touch with the pupils to
awaken and stimulate the moral as well as the intel-
lectual life. The one and the other seem so closely
united that they develop simultaneously under healthy
supervision. There can be no question of opposition ;
it is not your function to indicate shortcomings, or to
assume responsibilities that belong to others. You
have your own work to do ; do it as perfectly as pos-
sible in everything that concerns you, and since you
are fortunate enough to have a few colleagues who
think as you do, strengthen yourselves by frequent dis-
cussions on important subjects whose very nature will
be a guarantee against pettiness. Thus your light will
shine before you, and this little nucleus of devoted
and faithful souls will work for the greater good of
all. Do not take my scolding seriously, my dear, for it
is a very great satisfaction to me to be in touch with
your life as much as possible. So do not fear to intrust
me even with what you call your "discouragements."
They are not such in reality, for you have too strong
a mind and too robust a faith not to overcome all
weakness I uncertainty.
I am lar from thinking you aristocratic, my child,
for wishing to see at the Ecole de Sevres only dis-
tinguished minds and noble characters. I am just as
aristocratic as you, and I approve of your not sending
to us all the girls who would like to come. But if.
282 FRENCH EDUCATIONAL IDEALS OF TODAY
among the mediocre, you find some with good sense,
simplicity, sympathy, and what I call a good mind, I
believe that they can gain a great deal at Sevres, and
that they will render good service to secondary educa-
tion, without suffering too much from their home sur-
roundings, however humble these may be. The older
I grow, the more convinced I am that good sense and
kindness are the essential characteristics for success and
happiness in life In the school here I dread coquetry
and frivolity and vanity, quite as much as, if not more
than, vulgarity, for the latter is often but the outer
husk which disappears with culture. Send us, there-
fore, dear child, for want of distinguished intellects,
good minds that are simple, upright, and just. I
count upon your intuition to supply all that I cannot
very well say.
May 31, 1886
Do not judge too severely the conservatism of those
who are responsible for the direction of the lyc6es,
exaggerated as it sometimes is. I believe that this
conservatism is an effort to reassure timid minds, to
win over the prejudiced, and so to make the greatest
possible number of children profit by instruction which
after all contributes to the progress of our beloved
country. I am sorry that you do not teach ethics, but
you do teach it none the less to all your pupils by pre-
cept and example.
October, 1887
Would that the broad spirit of the school, where all
religions are respected and given the greatest liberty.
MADAME JULES FAVRE 283
should become more and more the spirit of France!
I agree with you that the lycees should contribute to
this end. Our lycees gather together, without re-
ligious or social distinction, a great number of girls
who in after life can never forget this delightful intel-
lectual companionship. I see in these lycees a wonder-
ful opportunity for spreading abroad the spirit of
liberty, equality, and fraternity throughout our coun-
try.
You are quite right in setting kindness above all
other characteristics. I will even say that true kind-
ness fosters clearness of vision in the soul and correct
judgment in the mind, so that a person cannot be
genuinely kind without being genuinely intelligent.
AprU, 1888
Avoid flattering your pupils too much. By this I
mean giving too much praise to those who do well and
who are only too likely to believe themselves prodigies
in the little circle where they live. Do not encourage
unduly the love of independence. Strive to develop
in them a firm, upright conscience which will be their
guide under all circumstances, but check the boasting
by which girls too often try to affirm their independ-
ence. As for you yourself, learn better how to make
minor concessions in order to gain more authority in
important matters.
I agree with you that it is necessary to show a great
deal of confidence in pupils and that that is one of the
principal methods of awakening and developing self-
284 FRENCH EDUCATIONAL IDEALS OF TODAY
respect. Those who do not respond to this confidence
would not profit any more under another system of
education. I never have a good opinion of people
who laugh and shrug their shoulders at those who be-
lieve in human nature. Perhaps such skepticism arises
because they understand human nature only through
themselves.
October, 1887
That question always amuses me: "What can I
teach him ? He does not Hke me." Perhaps it might
be said : *'I do not like him." The two conditions are
inseparable. . . . The longer one lives in the teach-
ing profession, the more reasons one has for being
humble and indulgent.
Love of duty is also a religion, and when I encounter
it I esteem it as much as any creed. Sincere convic-
tion, wherever it exists, should always influence moral-
ity.
Do you know that I should never have dared give a
pupil a book and forbid her to read certain pages ? It
is exposing her to too great temptation. I do not think
it wise to designate in this way pages which can only
excite morbid curiosity.
February, 1888
Your directress had every right to criticize. Grant-
ing even that she did so in an offensive manner, you
were wrong to resent her criticism. The discipline
which annoys you is practically the same in all es-
tablishments of public instruction, and is very insig-
MADAME JULES FAVKE 285
nificant when one thinks of the great idea for which
you are working and which should lift you above all
petty, personal questions. Try to bear your troubles
as philosophically as possible. You are probably
thinking that at a distance it is easy for me to give you
this advice. In fact, that is just what I am thinking,
for I remember how painful such ordeals are and how
they exhaust the courage, which must be replenished
through meditation and action. The teacher must
frequently take refuge in the serene kingdom of ideas.
Here one finds the peace that was lost and pure satis-
faction without end. Life has real grandeur in a pro-
fession such as yours. Woe to the educator who does
not recognize it ! Woe also to her pupils !
ON MORAL TEACHING
At the time when moral instruction begins for the
child, he has already had some experience in moral
life, and the teaching he receives is eflScacious only if
it trains him to apply it to his own life, to watch him-
self, and to practice the precepts he has retained.
Here, more than anywhere else, one should introduce
illustrations only after having made clear the cor-
responding ideas. It might be still better to deduce
the latter from self-observation and the observation of
others, revealing the child to himself by well-directed
questions. However, in order to spare the sensitive
soul that seeks to escape too direct supervision, we
must use with discretion the illustrations that are
furnished by the acts of the child himself or of his
comrades, and must base the moral lesson on the life
286 FRENCH EDUCATIONAL IDEALS OF TODAY
of some historical character, or of a hero or heroine of
drama or story. After the pupils have expressed their
opinions under the guidance of the teacher, they
themselves can apply the lesson to particular instances
in their own lives. Doubtless their opinions should
not be taken as an exact indication of the development
of their moral sense, which at every age is likely to be
more critical and more exacting for others than for self,
but it does not seem to me difficult to distinguish among
the opinions expressed those which are the results of
reflection and experience. The teacher should sum up
the lesson in words that are so concise, clear, simple,
and sincere, that they will sink into the soul with the
authority of a living sermon.
It is important first of all to understand that morality
is not to be taught like other subjects ; it is rather an
inspiration given at the beginning of life. I should
like to say that thanks to example and to the more or
less direct influence of environment, it is an atmos-
phere; it seems to be the result of higher instinct, of
intimate intuition, clearer and surer than all reason-
ing. This is what led Pascal to say that "men are
not taught to be honest men." As reason gradually
awakens and develops, morality may still be culti-
vated, but the moral sense is developed through the
souFs recognition of itself and of its power of choice,
rather than through suggestions imposed from with-
out. Thus one understands why "true morality laughs
at morality."
MADAME JULES FAVRE 287
EXTRACT FROM ADDRESS AT THE FIRST GEN-^
ERAL REUNION OF THE GRADUATES OF
SEVRES, OCTOBER 3, 1885
The more united we are, the stronger we shall be to
fight against the prejudice that still surrounds this
institution. In this noble struggle our weapons, as
you know, should be patience, gentleness, simplicity,
straightforwardness, and self-sacrifice. Gifts of intel-
ligence are invaluable, but it is chiefly through your
moral qualities that you will contribute to the triumph
of the great cause which is in your keeping. Instruc-
tion skillfully imparted by an enlightened mind has
power to ennoble and strengthen the intelligence, but
the example of willing submission to duty, however
humble it may be, is still more powerful to win hearts
and to make them love duty.
B. JACOB
B. Jacob (1859-1909), professor at the normal schools of Sevres
and Fontenay-aux-Roses. His poor health as well as the extreme
conscientiousness with which he devoted himself to his teaching
prevented him from writing much. Nevertheless, he exerted a po-
tent influence through his lectures and letters, a few of which have
been collected. Faith in pure morality, independent of all re-
ligion, was one of his guiding principles, furnishing the inspiration
of his Pout VScole laiquc. The complete lecture, from which the
following passages have been taken, was published in a book en-
titled Devoirs.
RESIGNATION
Op all the virtues which the ancient moralists, es-
pecially those of the last period, have forcefully recom-
mended, resignation is among the most important.
For them it sums up all individual morahty. Resig-
nation is wisdom, for the man who understands nature
can only bow before the clear necessity of the laws
which govern her. Resignation is temperance, for
man submits to the inevitable conditions of natural
and human existence only by restraining his appetites
and feelings. Resignation is courage, for it needs a
vigorous effort of the will to impose silence upon the
emotions of anger and sadness of which reason dis-
approves. Epictetus gathers around resignation the
essential doctrines of his ethics when he sums them up
in the formula, "Abstain and endure," and it is resigna-
tion which inspired the naturalistic piety of Marcus
Aurelius. "O world," cries the philosopher, "all
that pleases thee, pleases me ; nothing is either back-
ward or premature for hich is in season for thee !
Everything that thy status bring is fruit, O nature ! "
Today resignation is less popular among the moral-
B. JACOB 289
ists, and the counsel they most willingly recommend
to me is to fight against the order of things as they are,
to react and struggle against the evils of every sort
that the organization of nature and of society im-
poses on the species and on the individual. It is no
longer proper for us to submit to the order of the uni-
verse ; we have rather the ambition to make the world
subordinate to our will. Destiny, formerly respected
as an all-powerful divinity, has ceased to appear su-
preme, and according to the expression of Renan, the
modern man has become "bold before God." Let
us indicate some of the causes which have determined
this change in attitude. When we have understood
why the moderns limit the role of resignation, it will
be easier for us to fix the place and the use that this
virtue, brought back within its legitimate sphere,
should occupy in a rational ethics.
The first weapon man uses against resignation is
science. "To know is to do," and the laws discovered
by scientists permit us to modify to our advantage
the natural phenomena whose conditions fall within
our grasp. When we know that by the use of exact
and certain laws evil may be lessened or destroyed,
sufifering attenuated or suppressed, would it not be
absurd and even immoral to resign oneself to it?
Whatever may be our respect for stoicism, we can only
agree with Macaulay when, in a celebrated paragraph,
he sets over against the passive philosophy of the
Stoics the enterprising and successful activity of our
scientists :
A disciple of Epictetus and a disc .pie of Bacon come to a village
where the smallpox has just begun to rage and find houses shut up.
290 FRENCH EDUCATIONAL IDEALS OF TODAY
intercourse suspended, the sick abandoned, mothers weeping in
terror over their children. The Stoic assures the dismayed popu-
lation that there is nothing bad in the smallpox and that to a vdse
man disease, deformity, death, the loss of friends are not evils.
The Baconian takes out a lancet and begins to vaccinate. They
find a body of miners in great dismay. An explosion of noisome
vapors has just killed many of those who were at work ; and the
sur\'ivors are afraid to venture into the ca,vern. The Stoic assures
them that such an accident is nothing but a mere aTroTrporjyixevov.
The Baconian, who has no such fine word at his command, contents
himself with devising a safety lamp. They find a shipwrecked
merchant wringing his hands on the shore. His vessel with an
inestimable cargo has just gone down, and he is reduced in a moment
from opulence to beggary. The Stoic exhorts him not to seek
happiness in things which lie without himself and repeats the whole
chapter of Epictetus "To those who fear poverty." The Baconian
constructs a diving-bell, goes down in it, and returns with the most
precious effects from the wreck.
It is certain that every time science, in circum-
stances of this nature, advises the struggle against
destiny and arms us for this struggle, no modern Stoic
would refuse to follow science in order to practice
useless resignation, justified eighteen centuries ago
only because of ignorance.
[On the other hand, the political and social system
of the modern democracy, authorizing in all men any
and all ambitions, no longer asks any class or indi-
vidual to give up in advance the hope of attaining to
the position of the most fortunate. Nevertheless,
even today moral education should lay considerable
stress upon resignation.]
In the first place there are eternal laws of life to
which we shall always have to resign ourselves. Phys-
ically man is an exceedingly complex organism whose
B. JACOB 291
health is in a very unstable equilibrium, continually
menaced by slight or serious changes, which make
themselves known to the consciousness in the form of
discomfort and pain. And one cannot foresee the day
when one will escape the necessity of suffering, for
while civilization multiplies the remedies against our
ills, it also refines the nervous system and makes it
exquisitely sensitive to disturbances that are more
and more insignificant. To suffer with dignity, man
will therefore always need the virtue of resignation,
and he will ^X) we his resignation in the future to the
same motives which have been responsible for it in
the past.
Ordinarily, when it is a question of accepting tem-
porary suffering, resignation does not require a great
effort ; it becomes much more diflScult when we have
to accustom ourselves to permanent privations and
consent to final renunciation. It is hard to reconcile
ourselves to infirmities which forever cripple our
activity and our material well-being. Nevertheless,
the sage resigns himself; indeed, he almost consoles
himself for this infirmity by a life of the soul that is
more and more active and profound as his outward
life becomes impoverished and contracts. During
the sad years that Marcus Aurelius spent on the banks
of the Danube, occupied in beating back the barbarian
invasions, he was diverted from the fatigues and cares
of his double occupation as emperor and general
by a single joy, that of reading the writers whose
maxims confirmed his heroism. After a time his sight
failed and the satisfaction of reading was denied him ;
292 FRENCH EDUCATIONAL IDEALS OF TODAY
but even this supreme trial did not crush him. "If
thou art no longer permitted to read," he writes,
"thou canst always spurn what would make thee
ashamed ; thou canst always condemn sensual pleas-
ures ; thou canst always abstain from anger toward
the foolish and ungrateful ; more than that, thou
canst always do them good." Thus courageous in-
valids think and act; when their life strikes against
an insurmountable obstacle in one direction, they
develop it in another, either moral, scientific, or
aesthetic. Beethoven, though deaf, composed ad-
mirable symphonies in which there break out at times
the accents of intense joy.
And it is not only to great men that it is given thus
to console themselves. The most modest can in large
measure overcome the effects of a natural or acquired
infirmity by exalting the faculties which nature leaves
them and which she often develops more intensely
because of arrested development elsewhere. The very
being that nature has abused most will learn to
feel that his life is not useless if, through the patience
and the serenity that ennoble it, it becomes a lesson
for others, sometimes even for the strongest. Very
often a man physically weak can render service to his
fellows, not only indirectly through example of his
resignation, but even directly through his acts. When
he economizes his forces and concentrates them en-
tirely upon a single object, it often happens that he
produces works or accomplishes tasks which equal
those of the most gifted. You have seen invalid
teachers, whose physical life was a perpetual suffering,
conduct their lessons with zeal and joy because they
B. JACOB 29S
had reserved all their energy for this effort. They
resigned themselves to an existence that was incom-
plete and painful, confident that in spite of nature it
would bear fruit.
[M. Jacob next examines the necessity of resignation
to death — the resignation of man to his own death,
and resignation to the death of those he loves.]
And that is why human wisdom counsels us in the
presence of the death of loved ones to resist, not suffer-
ing, but despair. The man of heart and of reason
who has been stricken in a great affection does not try
to escape his sorrow, for he knows it to be at once
natural and reasonable, but he tries to soften and
transform it into a determination to do the good that
remains for him to do, which he will often do without
wavering in order to remain faithful to the one whom
he mourns. The usual compensation for his effort
is the gradual assuagement of his sorrow as it becomes
more unselfish. The memory of the dead, instead of
being a pain which devitalizes and paralyzes, becomes
a sort of serious religion which sustains the courage
and furnishes reasons for continuing to live. Only
from a very lofty morality can the man whose heart
has been torn by his experiences derive the strength
to bear up under his wounds.
[Resignation is also logically necessary when, either
from force of circumstances or for lack of exceptional
talent, one is unable to reach certain desired attain-
ments, intellectual, scientific, aesthetic, Or social.]
It is more painful to relinquish certain desires of the
heart than to relinquish the desires of the intelligence
294 FRENCH EDUCATIONAL IDEALS OF TODAY
or even of the will. Nevertheless, the heart also has
a motive in renunciation when duty commands. . . .
It is thus evident that resignation should be culti-
vated in order that the individual may accept the
necessary e\n[ls and inevitable suffering that the general
laws of existence and the particular conditions of his
life force upon him. This is equivalent to saying that
wisdom dictates the rights of man where happiness
is concerned. The good things of life, turned to ac-
count by the man of energy and reason, suffice to make
life worth living; but they bring only temporary
happiness even to the most gifted and most favored
of fortune, a happiness which is incomplete and un-
certain. To persuade oneself that the happiness
accessible to man is limited, infinitely uncertain, this
is the first condition of happiness. Since this mental
attitude is really resignation in essence, and so to
speak in principle, we find in it a new argument against
the moderns who scorn the lessons of ancient wisdom,
the eternal necessity of resignation.
GUSTAVE LANSON
Gustave Lanson (1857- ), successively agrege, tutor of
Nicholas II, professor at the Sorbonne, and one of the first if not
the first professor of French literature of our day. In Trois mois
d'enseignement aux Etats-Unis he has published his lectures given
in the principal American universities. His Histoire de la littira-
ture frangaise is a classic.
THE MODERN SUBJECTS IN SECONDARY
EDUCATION 1
This, then, is the triple task assigned to us : to give
intellectual,^^ moral, and civic education. We have
not the right to affect an ancient and predemocratic
tradition of literary instruction, or to quote a personal
opinion or inclination ; we have not the right to reject
this duty and say: "We shall teach literature in
literary fashion, that is to say aesthetically. We shall
form the taste, excite the imagination, refine the sensi-
bility. We shall make or try to make artists. We
shall bungle a thousand, but we shall make one good
one, and we shall have done our duty. The rest is
none of our business."
We have not the right to say that. If we should
say it, or if people should believe we thought it, so
much the worse for the teaching of literature, which
would have a bad quarter of an hour to look forward to.
But formerly, you will say, the teacher of the hu-
manities or rhetoric was the principal teacher, the
sole teacher, and he devoted his entire attention to
aesthetic culture and the formation of taste. Of course
he did. The dualism in the education of that time
* Extracts from an address published in USducation de la dimocratie,
1903.
295
296 FRENCH EDUCATIONAL IDEALS OF TODAY
relieved him of every other responsibility. Religion
dictated the character and morals, religion furnished
the maxims and guiding principles of life, reUgion
gave civic education, subject to the prince according
to the will of God and the teaching of the Apostles.
When religion failed, it was family or class prejudices
which became guiding principles for the child. In a
word, his conscience was formed aside from his studies.
The teacher of belles-lettres had only to polish the
mind, to mold it according to an agreeable pattern,
to give it a refined taste for literature, a desire to shine
in society, and a supple rhetoric to cite with bril-
liancy and charm the behefs received from another
quarter. . . .
This literary work of a bygone day, the teaching
understood by those who intone the eloquent hymn of
the old humanities, has become impossible for two
reasons :
I. Our pupils are no longer recruited as they were
formerly. In the old days the children of the upper
classes came to the college already formed by their
environment. When they returned to it they had
the influence of a literary culture analogous to that
of the college, which kept them in touch with the best
in life. Children of humbler station are also sent to
us, coming from families where no one ever reads any-
thing but the daily paper, where no one ever will read
anything but the daily paper. These children are not
amenable to literary education ; it slips from the surface
of their minds or passes over their heads.
In olden times the sons of peasants like Marmontel
who came to college were, so to speak, sealed up there.
GUSTAVE LANSON 297
They were withdrawn from contact with their families,
but more than that they were imbued with the idea
that by educating themselves they were rising above
their class, and climbing the ladder to honor and for-
tune. Today this is no longer the case. We offer
them too many other ways to forge to the front. We
no longer keep them for years immersed in the same
bath of literature. They no longer plunge into it
with the same faith.
II. We no longer have a dogmatic theory of the
principles pf taste. That is the real reason for the
lack of success in purely literary teaching. In the
eighteenth century and up to sixty years ago there
was a doctrine of good taste which could be taught
to children. They were taught the rules of eloquence,
of poetry, of all styles of composition.
Everything was defined and classified. Texts of
great writers were used to illustrate how the rules
were applied. Their taste was refined still more by
giving them delicate problems for solution. They
were taught to correct an apparent violation of the
rule, to detect an infraction of the rule in grandiloquent
effects, in a word to make new and personal applica-
tions of universal principles. The mediocre were con-
tent to learn the letter of the law and the ordinary
applications; the best pupils found therein oppor-
tunity for an ingenious and continuous exercise of
invention. To form the taste meant something; it
meant a practical program of education, suited to the
different ages of the schoolboy.
Formerly taste was first taught, then sought, in the
masterpieces of literature; today taste is acquired
298 FRENCH EDUCATIONAL IDEALS OF TODAY
through reading and studying Hterature. From being
a 'priori and dogmatic, taste has become experimental
and relative. That is to say, the formation of taste
is the crowning of the whole education, the last ac-
quisition of the adolescent.
Since we cannot place the doctrine of taste at the
center of literary teaching, we must see that the child
comes into contact with the masterpieces of literature
during a long period of time ; we must let him record
and accumulate sensations without our assistance
and without demanding that he reason about them.
While waiting for the epoch in his life when, without
risk of teaching him mere words, we can invite him to
reflect on these accumulated sensations, when because
he has felt much we can ask him to express a little
of what he feels, we must give another precise and
tangible aim to this study of literary masterpieces
through daily association with these masterpieces.
This refines his taste imperceptibly, without the aid
of formula or dissertation.
What can this tangible, definite aim be if not that
which is fundamental for democracy, the formation
of the sense of truth, of the sense of justice and sol-
idarity, and of the civic spirit ?
But how can all this be found in literature? Is it
not chimerical to try to draw from works of art, which
were created in order to give a certain delicate pleasure,
lessons which they do not contain? Manifestly we
must give a certain definition of literature; we must
see in art, as did Tolstoi, a language, and in literature
something else besides the frivolous play of fantasy
and form. We must see men who tell what they have
GUSTAVE LANSON 299
demanded of life, and the dreams they have dreamed —
men who translate in their own fashion into beauty
and poetry what some others have translated into laws,
others into action, battles, industrial inventions, and
commercial efiFort, men who have defined the eternal
conflict between man and nature, the bitter com-
petition among their fellows, the slow evolution and
violent crises experienced by moral beliefs and social
organisms. A literary masterpiece is an aspect of hu-
manity, a moment in civilization. The least serious
is fraught ^th meaning if one so considers it. A
sonnet of Voltaire sums up and presents the entire
civilization of the first half of the seventeenth cen-
tury — an absolute monarchy, a brilliant society, the
intellectual domination of Italy and Spain, and the
recent brutality chained down by a minute ceremonial.
We have the right to see in literature a reflection of
life itself and to seek within it the means of preparing
men to meet life.
But how is it to be taught so as to attain this end ?
In order to be more specific, I shall pass in review the
different exercises of a French class.
Some of these certainly seem to have no connection
with our definition of education. What can gram-
matical analysis, for instance, do for the service of the
democracy? More than one thinks, if hidden behind
the school exercise one always recognizes a living,
moving spirit in the ebb and flow of its evolutionary
development. Bossuet said in substance to the
Dauphin: "It is not the barbarism or the solecism
in your theme which is bad; it is the intellectual
sluggishness, the carelessness, the lack of mental
300 FRENCH EDUCATIONAL IDEALS OF TODAY
curiosity that the blunder displays." We must doubt-
less try to correct the mistake in the exercise, but it
is especially necessary to rectify the defect in the mind.
Sometimes we professors, even the best and most
conscientious among us, are a little fanatical. We
are more interested in the theme, in the dissertation,
formerly in the Latin verses, than in our pupils. At
times we forget that our aim should not be to obtain
an ideal theme, a model speech, or a good exercise,
but a good mind. We must rid ourselves of the super-
stitious cult of the school exercise and look beyond the
correct or incorrect copy at the little moral being who
has revealed himself in it, though in ever so slight
a degree.
WTiat is more important, our class exercises will
themselves have educational value if they are subordi-
nated to the idea of truth.
Even at a tender age and during the earliest lessons
the teacher can develop this sense of truth in the child
if he takes care not to teach him words, not to allow
him to store up words or to repeat them mechanically.
It is to be regretted that in order to acquire the nec-
essary knowledge of grammar children leam lists of
words which are outside the vocabulary of childhood,
the things themselves being outside the experience of
childhood as well. The other day I heard a little fellow
of seven bustling about trying to fix in his mind "pre-
fix," "abstract," "concrete," with their corresponding
feminine forms — one strange word and two incompre-
hensible words. We shall have difficulty in developing
good minds if we warp them thus at the outset.
But to come back to the higher grades, in which I
GUSTAVE LANSON 801
have made many extensive experiments. Here there
are two fundamental exercises : French composition,
and interpretation of selected passages.
I admit that I am scarcely satisfied with French
composition as it is treated in the majority of our
classes. In the form of speeches or dissertations liter-
ary history and literary criticism dominate throughout
our composition work. In literary history the pupil
speaks of what he does not know, without having read
the text, merely relying on the strength of a manual.
In literary criticism he speaks of what he has not per-
sonally acquired, of what he does not understand,
again depending upon authority. Empty verbalism,
imitation, and plagiarism, insincerity and disregard
for the exact meaning, or on the contrary audacious
affirming without knowing — these are the too fre-
quent results of composition work as we practice it
today. You may say that these criticisms do not
apply to the good pupil. Not always, I admit, but
nevertheless more frequently than they should. And
then there are those that are not so able, the mediocre,
the poor pupils, who should no longer be sacrificed
as necessary waste in the process of obtaining a superior
product. So far as they are concerned, and they
form a majority, our work in French composition is
beyond them.
The fundamental difficulty is that composition
demands creative ability ; it is a work of art. Up to
the present time we have striven only "to raise up
men of genius" or talent, to encourage "artistic voca-
tions." We have sacrificed the mass to the individuals
who flattered us and were a credit to us. In order
302 FRENCH EDUCATIONAL IDEALS OF TODAY
to develop a Paradol, an About, a Lemaitre, we have
bungled, deformed, or repelled hundreds and hundreds
of the mediocre whom we might have improved. Our
French composition and our whole literary teaching
aimed only to select the artist from the crowd, to
awaken, refine, and equip him, still imaware of his
presence in the child. We sought to discover the orator,
the novehst, or in lieu of these the journalist, whom
we trained merely to be an inferior orator, novelist, or
poet. The democracy requires something more.
For the great mass of our pupils, French com-
position should be something very simple, but at the
same time intellectually and morally sound. To
speak only of the things one knows (and I do not
define knowledge as mere contact with a textbook) ;
to discuss only the questions with which one is familiar
(literary aesthetics is beyond a child of fifteen) ; to
treat questions that are simple, all the data of which
may be exactly determined and can be assembled by
direct personal observation of the pupil — these are
to my mind the important principles. This chosen
subject matter should be put into shape, and clearness
of exposition, precision, and appropriateness of ex-
pression are the habits which should be inculcated.
All teachers of rhetoric have long since ceased to en-
courage eloquence, figures of speech, and the whole
rhetorical paraphernalia. We must now cease to en-
courage the tendency to produce brilliant effects at
the expense of simple truth. We must comprehend
fully that it is more wholesome for young minds to be
trained to summarize than to spin out a thought, to
simplify than to amplify. I imagine that in the future
GUSTAVE LANSON 803
the model of literary composition in our secondary
schools will not be the harangues of the Condones, or
the speech of the Academician, or the article of Paradol
or Lemaltre, but the businesslike report, the exact,
well-ordered, luminous exposition of a selected ques-
tion, without eloquence, poetry, or literary artifice,
the solution of which depends upon choice and examina-
tion of facts. This training will not smother artistic
development, but it will give the best minds, as well
as the mediocre, habits of thought which they will
never regrej^ and which society will never need to re-
gret having imposed upon them.
Reading and interpretation of texts are the funda-
mental exercises of a French class. What texts should
preferably be chosen ?
Each teacher should choose the works he knows
best, those he cares most for, — not those for which
he has a ready-made preparation, but those which
seem to him the richest and most significant. Whether
one takes Voltaire or Bossuet is immaterial. In fact,
I do not think it would be difficult to depend entirely
upon the monarchist. Catholic authors of the seven-
teenth century, and to draw from them, without any
misconstruction or misinterpretation, teaching that is
most modern and most appropriate for our children
in a free-thinking democracy. It is the teacher who
is important, not the text.
Little history of literature being possible, I should
reserve that for university work. A pupil of the third
form ^ and often of the first has read almost nothing.
' In the boys' lyc^es, the lowest class is the infant class (six years of
age), followed by two years in the preparatory division, then eighth form.
304 FRENCH EDUCATIONAL IDEALS OF TODAY
Manifestly we cannot give the history of literature,
the history of the development of the different types
of writing, without speaking to the pupil and making
him speak of many masterpieces which he has not yet
read and of an infinite number of less important works
(stages in an evolutionary process of considerable
historical importance, but whose aesthetic value is
negligible) which he will be justified in never reading.
A brief, easily learned chronology, entirely purged
of critical formulas and aesthetic judgments, will
suffice to fix in mind the outline within which the
different works will gradually fall into place as they
are read.
It will certainly always be possible, and often useful,
for the interpretation of a particular text to open
vistas in literary history, to acquaint the pupils with
the relations of certain works to other works. This,
however, must be done discreetly and prudently, —
never by means of definite statement, rather in the
form of a hint or of a program of suggested reading.
While I deprecate the history of literature as a mere
history of different types of writing, I welcome the
historical study of literature which encourages the
study of human life as it is recorded in literary forms.
Our pupils will be interested in even the most serious
of our texts if v/e show them the soul in these texts,
the soul that wills, that suffers, and that struggles.
Early in life the child loves to watch men in action;
he reflects on what he sees ; he accumulates his own
seventh form, and so on up to the first form and finally the philosophy-
mathematics form. This gives a twelve-year course of study, running
normally from the boy's sixth to his eighteenth year.
GUSTAVE LANSON 305
little experience. Let us enlarge it; let us give him
in literature the spectacle of an infinite number of
lives, of the richest lives that have existed.
Finally our literary texts cover all important moral
and social questions, each one in the form and aspect
which a certain epoch, a certain society, or a certain
individual has given it. We must not lose sight of
this fact. It would be treachery toward Pascal or
Voltaire to find in them mere beauty or refinement
of style, delights for the taste, and to avoid the great
moral and social problems stated in their peculiarly
beautiful and charming style. It would be treachery
toward our pupils, for thus we should be giving only
an incomplete and inadequate education. The school-
boy who enters life tomorrow to become a man and a
citizen should know the path along which his future
activity will be directed. At least it is imperative
that he should have studied the map, that he should
know how and in what direction to proceed, what
distances he will have to cover, what obstacles he will
have to surmount or clear away. We in France have
never neglected an opportunity to instill in our pupils
horror of falsehood, of exaggeration, of spying, or to
teach them the value of the virtues peculiar to society.
Many worthy men have come up through our schools
devoted to their families, and pleasant companions
for their friends ; but the excellent type of good
bourgeois, the amiable man of the world, the honor-
able man, are no longer sufficient for the French de-
mocracy nor for the present state of human civilization.
We must prepare young men to understand the
moral and social questions which they have to meet;
306 FRENCH EDUCATIONAL IDEALS OF TODAY
we should prepare them to solve these questions
exactly, unselfishly, and justly. "This is treading
on dangerous ground," you may say. That depends.
These questions have all arisen in the past; they
were decided in a certain way. We can show how
the form these questions took and their solution were
related to certain conditions of science and of civiliza-
tion. One of Pascal's Provinciates, a chapter of
Montaigne, a dissertation by Ronsard, a narrative by
Monluc, a tragedy by Corneille, one of Bossuet's
sermons, a book of TeUmaque, one of Voltaire's letters,
a dissertation by Rousseau, a chapter of Montesquieu,
an epoch of Buffon, an extract from Chateaubriand,
a poem by Hugo or Lamartine, and a narrative of
Michelet, if we know how to select and interpret them,
contain all the problems of conscience and all the
social problems which it is necessary that a young
mind should know. The autonomy of the conscience,
liberty of thought and action, the possibility or im-
possibility of morality without dogma, political liberty,
economic problems — there is nothing which may not
be found in a literary text, simplified, clarified, reduced
to its essential elements. Presented in its historical
form, as an historical question, each one of these
problems may be defined without polemics, without
fanaticism, and without violating the neutrality of
the school, if for the sake of neutrality we are not for-
bidden to discuss those subjects that others claim the
sole right to teach.
Is this equivalent to saying that we must not bring
the minds of our pupils up to the present .f* May we
not show them whether the former problems exist
GUSTAVE LANSON 307
today, and show them the form these problems assume
in the society of the present, how the solutions of the
past are either disputed or rejected or confirmed today ?
This must always be done briefly and discreetly, with-
out display of personal prejudice, without dictatorial
dogmatism, without fanatical proselytism; it must
be historical exposition, not catechism or preaching,
but the real definition of the spirit of a given epoch,
little or great. Our secret preference will inevitably
make itself felt quite enough without our emphasizing
it. On two or three points we may venture a little
further, because there can be neither disadvantage
nor offense in speaking emphatically on the twofold
and indivisible love of France and of humanity, on the
universal principles of liberty and solidarity, on re-
spect for the law. Here each one must teach accord-
ing to his temperament, his spirit, and his conscience.
Although we are directing all our efforts to teach
literature historically and to form the intellectual,
moral, and civic conscience through study of this
subject, let us not therefore fear the neglect of the
aesthetic education.
We shall accomplish the essential precisely because
we have eliminated what is useless and impossible and
have avoided wrong methods. Our schoolboy who
has studied language and grammar, who has regarded
the fitness, clearness, and precision of language, who
has studied the relation between form and idea, es-
pecially the relation of the form and the idea to life,
and who has been in contact with only the master-
pieces of literature, will not have learned how to write
articles of criticism. He will not know how to discuss
308 FRENCH EDUCATIONAL IDEALS OF TODAY
formulas or resolve the vast and abstruse questions
of aesthetics or of literary history, but he will possess
all the elements of aesthetic culture. He will not be an
artist, but still less will he be an imitator or a bungler.
He will have acquired the technical knowledge and
have gone through the practical apprenticeship which
are the bases and conditions of good taste and artistic
sense. He can develop these interests at the uni-
versity if he goes there, or through reading at home if
he continues to read. We shall not have given him
taste, but rather the means for developing taste if he
has the capacity. We shall have taught him all that
he can be taught, without inoculating him with a
morbid propensity for writing or the fever for criticism.
Perhaps he will not write a single dissertation on
poetry as long as he lives, but he will read the poets —
an unusual custom of late, if we can believe the editors.
Let us not forget that our pupils leave school with
their whole lives before them, that the end of their
studies is only the beginning of life, and that it is not
necessary to have taught them all that they will know,
or to have made them do all that they will do. We
cannot and we should not hope to furnish them any-
thing but the elements, which they may or may not
use — that is their affair ; but we can inspire in them
a determination to do something with the knowledge
they have acquired.
PAUL DESJARDINS
Paul Desjardins (1859- ), publicist, college and lycee teacher,
member of the Institute.
INTERPRETATION OF TEXTS IN THE LYCEE »
Interpretation of texts occupies the first place in the
literature programs in that secondary education of
girls for which we are serving our apprenticeship.
This exercise appears as early as the third primary
class, where children of eleven and twelve years of age
are asked tQ/* prepare a few passages" before the same
passages are explained in class. From this time until
the education is completed, the articles of the program
of each year relating to the French language and litera-
ture always begin with "interpretation of texts."
M. H. Bernes, in his report to the Higher Council
of Education, July, 1897, justifies this primacy ac-
corded the study of texts on the ground that since
their meaning is revealed only by detailed study, a
habit of "intellectual precision" is thereby developed.
M. Bernes further explains that he refers to "exercises
of interpretation that are both literal and literary."
We are thus admonished to concentrate our attention
on an exercise which will be valuable only as it is in-
telligently conducted.
When we consider that all literary teaching should
"be based on the study of texts and should culminate
in this study," we get a clearer insight into the em-
phasis we should give to it. Nevertheless, in order to
form an adequate idea of this particular type of work,
^ Notes of a lecture on " Practical Pedagogy " in the first-year literature
class at the Ecole de Sevres.
309
310 FRENCH EDUCATIONAL IDEALS OF TODAY
we must give it its proper place in the scheme of second-
ary education.
Let us recall briefly that this study responds to a
social need. The division of labor grows apace, and
tends to narrower and narrower specialization. If all
the members of society had specialized from child-
hood in their different fields of labor, they would lack
common interest, they would have no basis of com-
munication, and society finally would be but a group
of organisms without collective conscience.
In instituting non-specialized secondary education
as a State function, society has wished to develop this
necessary mutual understanding and intercourse among
its members. It has wished to combat the narrowing
tendency of specialized trades by offering to all young
men for whom the necessity of gaining a hvelihood is
not imminent a uniform period of preparation, an ap-
prenticeship in humanity. It accomplishes or rather
tries to accomplish this by reducing the inheritance of
civilization to a form which all may assimilate and
organize for the social good. Such is the controlling
idea of our secondary education. All this is true not
only of the secondary education of boys, where the
need of taking such precautions against narrow speciali-
zation is particularly felt, but also almost to the same
extent in the education of girls.
In the first place an increasing number of women
even in the well-to-do classes are beginning to seek
economic independence in the exercise of a trade.
Secondly, the inequality of fortune and social position
that exists among the various classes is not less dis-
organizing for the women than is the diversity of the
PAUL DESJARDINS 311
professions for the men. The remark of the prefect's
wife in referring to the baihff's wife, and of the baiUff's
wife when the butcher's wife is mentioned, "I never
see Madame " is only too accurate, in the sense
that these different Frenchwomen are total strangers
to one another, and live mutually exclusive lives.
Finally, the secondary education of the future women,
if it is to carry out the aim of those who founded it,
should harmonize with that of the future men and be
guided by the same principles.
Our function in society as teachers being thus recog-
nized, we shall state this simple truth from our ex-
perience. Men differentiated by accident and environ-
ment resemble each other and hold to each other by
virtue of a certain inner life that is common to all.
Every change from the superficial to the profound,
from that which appears to be to that which is, from
conventionality to sincerity, from ready-made opinion
to independent criticism, from empiricism to serious
thought, has the effect of leading every individual
to discover the universal ego. That being true, the
teaching which aims to produce this effect will propose
as its general maxim the habit of introspection. It
will attempt to stimulate the inner life of the pupil
and make it valuable to him. It will seek to develop
concentration and the power of accurate judgment.
In short, it will endeavor to make him master of the
knowledge presented to him through the spoken and
the written word.
It follows, then, that our first necessary professional
qualification is the power of visualizing the psychic
life of children in its wavering course and of having
312 FRENCH EDUCATIONAL IDEALS OF TODAY
our sympathies keenly aroused thereby. When dis-
tinguished and even powerful minds are too much
absorbed either by the outside world or by personal
development, they often lose this power. Taine, for
instance, found his teaching (at Nevers, 1851-1852)
extremely tiresome, because he lacked psychological
imagination. This great word-painter of mountain
and forest scenery and of the customs of the past was
as unable to enter sympathetically into the thought
of his pupils as he was later unable to enter into the
thought of the members of the National Convention
of 1793. The vocation of the good secondary teacher
has characteristics in common with that of the dramatist
and these are the tests : he interests himself more in
the Uving pupil than in books; he catches the look
in all the young eyes raised up to him and reads its
meaning.
Let us come back to literary studies and the in-
terpretation of texts. In secondary work of this
character, the service that can be rendered by these
subjects is at once apparent, for the study of htera-
ture is observation of the human mind in action.
Literary research considers individual minds, each one
of which forms an entity at once complex and coherent.
It proposes men for our analysis, and not man, as
scientific psychology. Or, more properly speaking,
it deals with men intuitively rather than analytically ;
it represents rather than defines them.
Accordingly we expect literary study to develop
in young women the ability to grasp the life of thought
and feeling as an entity, inquisitive, independent, un-
certain, but nevertheless logical, mysterious, captivat-
PAUL DESJARDINS 313
ing, instructive, and beautiful. One can well say
that part of the rude discord in our society comes
from the absence of such an understanding. For
want of psychological imagination our contemporaries,
men and women, treat each other and really see each
other as monsters that should be cast outside the pale
of society, or, still worse, that look upon each other
with the same indifference and coldness that they
bestow upon material objects. Many women make
dolls of themselves because they have not learned to
enjoy the ppetry and the riches in their own inner
lives and in those of others. Thus we see that litera-
ture like history is not so much a subject of instruction
as a point of view.
After having pointed out what is inherent in the
literary point of view, we must describe the appropriate
method to be followed, for you will doubtless grant
that literary teaching should be given in a literary
manner.
Now if it be true that knowledge of literature has
for its object the analysis of the individual, the proper
use of a word, in short, something essentially concrete,
it is clear that this can be attained only through in-
tuition. Literary teaching is artistic teaching, which
does not advance proofs but which makes, or at least
attempts to make, the pupil feel. It demands of the
teacher a certain capacity, and it tries to develop in
the pupil a similar capacity. We might define this
as the capacity to understand both theoretically and
practically : (a) what is characteristic, and (b) what
is harmonious. What is characteristic needs to be
perceived through a mental attitude of alert curiosity,
314 FRENCH EDUCATIONAL IDEALS OF TODAY
of surprise and wonder, combined with the ability
to differentiate and interpret on the basis of psycho-
logical experience. What is harmonious needs to be
discovered through recognition of the relations exist-
ing between the material and spiritual worlds, so that
these may become a rich source of enjoyment for the
sensitive and beauty-loving soul.
Literary education, therefore, is acquired through
intuition, report and summary being of no use. What
is necessary is immediate contact with the original
texts, which should always be read, never related.
Let us read the texts one after another, clearing away
the difficulties, whether of ignorance, of abstraction
and verbalism, of hearsay and irrelevant comment, of
indifference and timidity, in fact all those hindrances
which prevent the pupil from recognizing himself in
the majestic work speaking out of the past. Let us
have the courage to bring the authors as near to our
pupils as we can ; let us bring the pupils into contact
with their original freshness, their crudeness or delicacy,
their wonder. Let us even try to make the ideas
subjective, if that be possible.
For this reason the texts must be interpreted.
Mere reading will not suffice, because the reading of
inexperienced boys and girls is not true reading.
Explanation, the preparation for the reading, the
scaffolding as it were, is a preliminary and necessary
condition to effective reading. I cannot urge upon
you too strongly such explanation of texts at a time
when the secondary education of girls, almost as much
as that of boys, is in danger of being warped by the
ever present thought of examinations. Then, if we
PAUL DESJARDINS 315
are not careful, we shall have to train our pupils for
years in order that they may be able to discuss in-
telligently for fifteen minutes before an examination
jury a page of French chosen at random. Here we
are confronted by a question of an entirely different
nature, for we have to teach girls to read who do not
know how to read, and we have to do our work so
thoroughly that they will never lose the power they
have acquired.
GABRIEL COMPAYRE
Gabriel Compayre (1842-1912), rector of the Academy of Lyons,
general inspector of public instruction, and member of the Listitute.
His Histoire critique des doctrines de I'Sducation en France, crowned
in 1877 by the Academy of Moral Science and later by the French
Academy, has become a classic. He has written numerous peda-
gogical works, several of which are so well known in the United
States as to make it unnecessary to quote extensively from his
writings.
THE QUESTION OF OVERWORK
Everywhere there is a heated campaign of opposition
and criticism against the so-called homicidal education
of our lycees and colleges. If this campaign of mis-
placed sentimentality were to continue, it would cer-
tainly end by convincing teachers and professors that
the ideal and mission of the profession is to make
people work as little as possible, and the lazy students
would easily persuade themselves, without very much
regret, that by persevering in laziness they were ful-
filling a social duty.
Doctors and the hygienists naturally take the most
active part in this campaign. They have heard, they
say, the complaints of the parents; they have wit-
nessed the tears of the mothers when the students
come home with their notebooks crammed with exer-
cises. The members of the Academy of Medicine
have officially drawn up an alarming list of the dis-
eases to which the conditions of school life are supposed
to be conducive : myopia, cephalalgia, hypertrophy
of the heart, albuminuria, arterio-sclerosis, typhoid
fever — I am skipping some, the worst of them, whose
barbarous names alone make one shudder. Ah ! you
316
GABRIEL COMPAYRfi 317
young people, you did not realize it, but those are the
terrible illnesses to which you are exposed as a penalty
for having wished to read Homer and Vergil in the
original. The air you breathe in your classrooms is full
of treacherous miasms. Germs of extraordinary dis-
eases circulate through them or lurk there permanently.
Be careful ! In their truly imaginative observations
the doctors have just discovered a fever peculiar to
the schools, the fever of overwork.
Doubtless there is much to be heeded in the reports
of the doctors. We, too, think it advisable to multiply
recreations, to change the age limit for examinations,
and to develop gymnastic work. But under pretext
of restoring the endangered equilibrium we must not
restore it to the detriment of the studies. Do not, I
pray you, do not, on the pretext of economizing the
strength of our children, preach intellectual inertia
and encourage the younger generation to seek only
comfort and to eschew all effort. And under pretext
of protecting the health of the body, do not, on the
morrow of the laws making instruction obligatory,
condemn the mind to obligatory ignorance.
ALBERT DUMONT
Albert Dumont (1842-1884), director of the French schools at
Athens and at Rome ; rector of the Academy of Grenoble ; sub-
sequently appointed by Jules Ferry as director of higher education ;
overtaken by premature death while engaged upon a comprehensive
plan for the reform of this latter field. A posthumous work. Notes
et discours, is his pedagogical legacy. It gives evidence of his con-
viction "that the heart of the fatherland should beat in the school."
DEMOCRACY AND EDUCATION ^
Public spirit is to nations what character is to in-
dividuals, an aggregate of sound ideas, controlled by a
will which measures the goal of its forces, sees nothing
higher than truth, and knows the power of good. We
acknowledge that it is formed under diverse influences,
but the most efficient of all and the one entirely in
our hands, for which we are responsible and which
should therefore preoccupy us constantly, is and al-
ways will be education. In a general way the progress
of right judgment in our country will be the progress
of teaching itself.
The idea that the university has formed of the role
which education plays in the State does not permit
any one of the three divisions of teaching — uni-
versity, lycee, or school — to be sacrificed to the other
two.
Secondary work poorly done gives the universities
a poorly prepared student body, and universities that
are careless make the recruiting of secondary instruc-
tion difficult. Universities, lycees, and colleges pre-
pare and test the reforms which little by little improve
elementary teaching, modify its methods, and raise
* From Notes et discours, pages 99-100.
318
ALBERT DUMONT 319
its standards. Primary education, on the other hand,
teaches every one what knowledge is, why it must be
valued, and how it merits the sacrifices that the tax-
payers make for it. The more crowded the schools
are, the more pupils the colleges and the universities
receive.
DEMOCRACY AND THE THREE DEGREES OF
EDUCATION 1
Posterity will say that during the short interval
through which we are passing at present all the tools
of the highest learning were renewed, and that this
is the work of a democracy which wished compulsory
education in the elementary school only if it ^ere ac-
companied by an adequate higher education. In-
deed, if it be true that primary education is indis-
pensable to all, if secondary education should be of-
fered to every pupil of the primary school who can
receive it with profit, the one and the other would
risk stagnation and loss of power if they did not con-
stantly receive new principles of activity and of life
from higher education. Primary and secondary edu-
cation are the results, as it were, of higher education ;
they furnish it with recruits, and from it they draw
their teachers.
The democracy is not making a mistake. It does
not encourage the sciences solely because they are an
incomparable source of wealth for commerce and in-
dustry. It looks higher and sees further; it con-
siders graduate studies as the very source, without
1 From Notes et discours, page 141.
320 FRENCH EDUCATIONAL IDEALS OF TODAY
which the others can neither subsist nor develop.
Therefore, it places among the benefactors of the
country all who have contributed to the progress of
truth, however specialized or minute their researches
may have been.
The democracy which contributes so effectively to
the development of higher education knows that the
most disinterested cultivation of the things of the
mind is also the most active agent for the progress
of public spirit, — a practical force, responsible en-
tirely for our national instruction and education.
PAUL PAINLEVE
Paul Painleve (1863- ), mathematician; chevalier of the
Legion of Honor; officer of Public Instruction; member of the
Institute ; professor in the faculty of science (University of Paris)
and at the Ecole Poly technique ; Minister of Public Instruction,
Fine Arts, and Inventions relating to National Defense.
ADDRESS BEFORE THE INTERNATIONAL
EDUCATIONAL CONFERENCE '
Ladies and Gentlemen: Forty-five years ago, just
after our defeat, Jean Mace, the adopted child of
Alsace — of our Alsace which is to become one with
its real country again, thanks to the heroism of our
soldiers — gave his entire attention to the Educational
League {Ligue de VEnseignement). Our assembly here
today is due to the initiative of this organization.
According to a famous saying, the German school-
master won the victories of Sadowa and Sedan.
France's task was to change the conditions that led
to her defeat. The program of the League, at that
time daring, now commonplace, may be summed up
in the phrases : compulsory education, free education,
secular education; compulsory, because the child's
interests demand that he should not be kept in igno-
rance on account of the ignorance of his parents ; free,
for it is adding penury to poverty to deprive a child
of all education because those who are bringing him up
cannot pay for it ; secular, because the State in carry-
ing out its duty as teacher has no right to force any par-
ticular religious belief upon its children.
You are aware. Gentlemen, what a storm of criticism
* Delivered Sunday, May 21, 1916, in the large amphitheater of the
Sorbonne, at the close of the international educational conference.
S21
322 FRENCH EDUCATIONAL IDEALS OF TODAY
this program has raised. You have not forgotten the
anxiety and the distrust shown only too readily with
regard to the educational work of the Republic, even
during the months directly preceding the war. This
war, the greatest of all wars, has magnificently given
the lie to this feeling of alarm.
It was claimed that the secular school would pro-
duce rebels. Who has held back at the call of the
country in its need.^ It was prophesied that there
would be quarrels and discord between the two parties
in France. When, pray, has France possessed larger
and more closely united armies .^^ More fortunate
than the first Republic, ours has known no Vendee;
her children have gathered unanimously around the
immortal charter of the Rights of Man. On behalf
of outraged justice, the freedom of humanity, the
rights of naJons, the respect for the weak, these her
sons know how to fight, to die, and to conquer, whether
they be pupils of the public or the private schools.
Let us therefore be doubly thankful for this holy
union; first and foremost, because it represents a
unified force in the country at the hour of her supreme
struggle, but also because it has been established
upon principles which we have always upheld, which
are inscribed in our hearts, and which appear to us
to constitute the moral inheritance of humanity.
You may therefore be proud. Gentlemen, of the part
you have played in building up the spirit of the nation.
The soldiers of the Marne, of the Yser, of Verdun, all
the countless heroes whose unknown fame could fill
ten centuries with stories, are the children of the Re-
public, of forty-five years of republican Hfe. And you
PAUL PAINLEVE 323
yourselves have been the good workmen who have
brought about the educational organization that has
molded these fearless hearts.
In our humble quarters, sometimes in a barn, where
the schools have been converted into hospitals, some-
times in a cellar as in Reims, what treasures of intimate
and touching solidarity are being revealed ! And
how justified you are in hoping that the spirit animat-
ing this work of war may animate and vivify in the
future the works of peace which only too often lie
idle in our schools ! Call the children to your aid,
organize friendly societies which they can conduct
themselves and children's anti-alcoholic leagues, as in
Belgium. By means of the dispensary and holiday
camps, wage war on consumption. After the cruel
lessons we have suffered, it is more thr I ' ever our
sovereign duty to watch over the health oftiie race.
Give us your help in educating those orphans left
by the war. Already the scheme of adoption by
schools is in full swing. The generous enterprise of
the Franco-American League under the organization
of the army orphanage has been set in operation. All
these are desirable activities. The Government, hav-
ing decided to define the standing of those adopted
children of the country, desires that these orphans
should form, as it were, the very pith of the young
people. You will help them also.
But compulsory extension schools for girls as well
as boys represent the most important and the boldest
of all your schemes. After the precious qualities of
our race have saved our country from the formidable
aggression that proved their value, shall we let them
324 FRENCH EDUCATIONAL IDEALS OF TODAY
sink again into lethargy? No government would
longer be worthy the name that did not bring all its
enthusiasm to bear upon the development of this in-
ternal source of wealth represented by the children of
France, workers-to-be in the most liberal of civiliza-
tions.
This plan of extension schools must renounce all
bureaucratic ideas. There must be no divisions, no
formality, no competition among committees. It is
a question of founding a great organization, which
must be supple and pliant, and all forces and all in-
dividuals must work together. It is not suflScient
that the four Ministries only should collaborate. They
must also appeal to private initiative, to all evening-
school societies, and to employers' and working men's
organizations, for unless all work together the effort
of the State would be useless. "Union for action"
must be our motto.
We must combine all our efforts so that France
in peace and victory, despite her devastation and her
suffering, may show herself a model nation. A model
nation is not one that rapes and plunders and is ready
to hurl itself on weaker nations in order to grow rich
through despoiling them. It is a brave and upright
nation, claiming for herself no right that she would
not be willing to give to others. A model nation is not
one whose people are enslaved, in which order rests
upon the passive obedience of the mass of individuals
to a few. It is a nation of freemen in which order rests
upon discipline arising from a consensus of opinion,
a nation in which, as a great American educator has
expressed it, each one feels obliged to work for the good
PAUL PAINLEVfi 325
of all and carries on his trade conscientiously as if it
were a public duty, a nation in which the workshop is
healthful and the home bright, a nation in which the
pleasures of the mind, the love of beauty, and the love
of truth are not the prerogative of the minority, but
are free to all according to their intelligence and their
taste. Our eyes will never behold this ideal nation,
but we can at least aspire to it with our whole soul,
and work together according to our strength toward
its accomplishment.
We shall Jbe stimulated to surmount all obstacles
by the needs of coming generations and still more by
the remembrance of those who have fallen and made
these efforts necessary. Gentlemen, since we are here
as guests of the Educational League, how can we help
giving one last thought to the thirty thousand teachers,
school and university professors, many of whom, alas !
have fallen, and of whom many at this very moment
block the invader's course with their bodies ? Nearly
every day a new leaf from the honor roll of the uni-
versity is placed before me. The list of teachers in-
scribed thereon is long, teachers of all ranks, whose
glorious deaths give the most brilliant dedication to
their moral teaching. Each leaf of this book increases
our grief, but each leaf adds to educational history some
new examples of heroism.
As one reads through the names of those mentioned
in despatches, with the brief reasons for decoration or
promotion, or as one reads the letters from any of the
fallen, letters so simple and heroic that they might
make the finest of anthologies of patriotism, and at
the same time are so noble-hearted, one is reminded
326 FRENCH EDUCATIONAL IDEALS OF TODAY
of the poet's words, "The more I am French, the more
I am human." One understands that such are the
men who have educated the race of unconquerable
soldiers, capable not only of that dash which has al-
ways been a recognized characteristic of our race, but
also of a persistent heroism which has astonished the
whole world. If such examples inspire us, not only
during the war, but well beyond it, there will be no
difficulty we cannot surmount, no dream we cannot
realize. Like the invisible sap that causes the vegeta-
tion to spring up even among ruins, so the courage
of our fallen will raise up over the bloody ruins of this
war a France united at last and glorious in the midst
of a liberated Europe.
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The first six volumes in the |
Educational Survey Series f
A carefully selected list of the best neiv f
educational survey material available |
SELF-SURVEYS BY COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES |
By WiLUAM H. Allen |
With a referendum to college and university presi- I
dents. A vast amount of information and practical |
methods of doing work. A practical, workable book. |
Illustrated. Cloth. $3.00. |
SELF-SURVEYS BY TEACHER-TRAINING SCHOOLS I
By William H. Allen and Carroll G. Pearse |
A book of surveying, technique, asking of questions, 1
analyses of answers, tabulation of results, problems I
of administration, and instruction. Cloth. $2.25. |
SCHOOL ORGANIZATION AND ADMINISTRATION |
By Ellwood P. Cubberley, Jesse B. Sears, Lewis M. |
Terman, J. H. Van Sickle, and J. H. Williams |
Based on the Salt Lake City survey. A detailed explana- |
tion of tests applied to children and results obtained, |
a study of retarded and gifted pupils, health control, |
building and site problems, and financial matters. |
There are 47 diagrams and charts. Cloth. $1.50. |
SURVEY OF THE SAINT LOUIS PUBLIC SCHOOLS |
By Charles H. Judd, J. F. Bobbitt, J. B. Cragun, F. i
H. Daniels, W. F. Dearborn, F. B. Dresslar, G. W. |
Ehler, F. N. Freeman, W. S. Gray, S. O. Hartwell, |
W. R. McCoRNACK, G. A. MiRiCK, H. C. Morrison, |
E. A. Peterson and H. O. Rugg |
The most important school survey made in 1918. In |
three volumes. |
I. Organization and Administration. I
II. The Work of the Schools. I
III. Finances. Cloth. Each $2.25 |
Other volumes are in preparation \
Detailed description of each book sent on request |
WORLD BOOK COMPANY |
YONKERS-ON-HUDSON, NeW YoRK |
2126 Prairie Avenue, Chicago |
Bllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll
Complete list of the
School Efficiency Series
Edited by Paul H. Hanus, of Harvard University
"On« of the most noteworthjr undertakings in professional education •/
the century." — Professor C. H. Johnston, University of Illinois
Frank P. Bachman. Problems in Elementary SchocJ Admialstration.
Cloth, $i.8o
Frank W. Ballou. High School Organization. Cloth, $i.8o
S. A. Courtis. Standards in Arithmetic. In preparation
Ellwood p. Cubberley, Fletcher B. Dresslar, Edward C. Elliott,
J. H. Francis, Frank E. Spaulding, and Lewis M. Terman. The
Portland Survey. Cloth, $i.8o
Calvin O. Davis. High School Courses of Study. Cloth, $i.8o
Edward C. Elliott. City School Supervision. Cloth, $i.8o
Henry H. Goddard. School Training of Defective Children. Cloth, $1.30
Paul H. Hanus. School EfSciency : A Constructive Study. Cloth, $1.30
Frank M. McMurry. Elementary School Standards. Instruction : Course
of Study : Supervision. Cloth, $x.8o
Ernest C. Moore. How New York City Administers Its Schools : A Con-
structive Study. Cloth, $1.80
Heruan Schneider. Education for Industrial Wcwrkert. Cloth, fi.50
George D. Strayer, Frank P. Bachman, Ellwood P. Cubberley,
William T. Bawden, and F. J. Kelly. Some Problems in City School
Administration. Cloth, $1.80
Frank V. Thompson. Commercial Education in Public Secoadary Schools.
Cloth, $1.80
Books sent postpaid on receipt of price
Illustrated catalog of the Sertes for the asking
WORLD BOOK COMPANY
Y0NK£RS-0N-HUDS0N, New YoRK
2126 Prairie Avenue, Chicago
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I School Efficiency Monographs I
= Constructive educational books of handy size covering many edu- I
I cational activities named in the order tn which they were issued I
I THE PUBLIC AND ITS SCHOOL |
i By William McAndrew |
I Treats educational matters in a big way. Illustrated. 60 cents, I
I STANDARDS IN ENGLISH I
I By John J. Mahoney |
I A course of study in composition for elementary schools. 99 cents i
I AN EXPERIMENT IN THE FUNDAMENTALS I
I By Cyrus D. Mead I
I Gives results from practice material. Illustrated. 60 cents. I
I NEWSBOY SERVICE I
I By Anna Y. Reed |
I Of value to those interested in the Smith-Hughes Act. 99 cents. I
I EDUCATION of DEFECTIVES in the PUBLIC SCHOOLS |
= By Meta L. Anderson |
I A thoroughly readable and instructive book. 75 cent*. I
I RECORD FORMS FOR VOCATIONAL SCHOOLS |
§ By Joseph J. Eaton =
I Forms showing ways to introduce efficiency methods. 60 cents, |
1 RURAL EDUCATION and the CONSOLIDATED SCHOOL I
I By Julius B. Arp |
i The problems of the rural school. Illustrated. 99 cents. I
I PROBLExMS IN STATE HIGH SCHOOL FINANCE I
i By Julian E. Butterworth |
I A vast amoimt of data for school officials. 99 cents. |
I COMMERCIAL TESTS AND HOW TO USE THEM |
I By Sherwin Cody |
I A working handbook of the National Business Ability Tests, i
i 99 cents. |
I THE RECONSTRUCTED SCHOOL |
I By Francis B. Pearson |
= Discussion of the real problems in the work of reconstruction, i
I 75 cents. I
I THE TEACHING OF SPELLING f
i By Willard F. Tidyman |
The only method book written since the famous investigations. |
99 cents. i
Other volumes in active preparation |
Prices are for kraft hound hooks |
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I PLAY SCHOOL SERIES
I Edited by Clark W. Hetherington
I Educating by Story-Telling
I SHOWING THE VALUE OF STORY-TELLING AS AN EDUCA-
TIONAL TOOL FOR THE USE OF ALL WORKERS WITH CHILDREN
By Katherine Dunlap Gather
1ATELY an understanding has been growing of the
-^ usefulness of the story as a tool for imparting infor-
mation, for leading to an appreciation of the beautiful in
literature and art, and for establishing higher standards
I of thought and actions besides being a means of enter-
I tainment.
I In this book the various story interests of children are
I analyzed a^nd classified, the construction of stories suit-
1 able to be told to children is explained. The principles
I of story-telling are discussed and helpful suggestions on
I the manner of telling are given.
i Finally there is a discussion of types of stories that lead
I to appreciation of music and art, and that supplement
history, geography, nature study, and manual training
lessons. The teaching of ethics through story-telling
is discussed and attention is directed also to the use of
story-telling as a basis for dramatization. Each chapter
ends with a bibliography of stories of the type considered
in the chapter. There is a general bibliography of story
literature and a list of stories arranged by grades for use
in each month of the year.
The book contains thirty stories, models of simple and
direct narrative, many of which will be new even to
experienced story-tellers.
It will give experienced story-tellers many new ideas and
give help and encouragement to the inexperienced.
The author is perhaps the best known writer on story-
telling in this country.
Cloth, xx-\-3g6 pages. Price $l^o
WORLD BOOK COMPANY
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2126 Prairie Avenue, Chicago
SCHOOL AND COLLEGE i
CREDIT FOR OUTSIDE I
BIBLE STUDY |
A Survey of a Nonsectarian Movement I
to Encourage Bible Study |
By Clarence Ashton Wood |
With an Introduction by Dr. Vernon P. Squires, Dean of the |
University of North Dakota I
E
THE author of this timely volume has made a thor- |
oughgoing study of the problem of religious educa- |
tion and has set forth in most interesting form in these |
pages the results of his investigations. |
Complete information is given concerning the growth and |
development of the movement to give academic credit for |
Bible study carried on outside of school, either in church |
and Sunday schools, vacation Bible schools, or Young f
Men's and Young Women's Christian Associations. |
=
The success of the plan in Colorado, Kansas, North
Dakota, Alabama, and other parts of the United States
where it is in operation is described.
Educational and religious workers and all laymen inter-
ested in the religious education of young people will de-
rive profit from a consideration of the facts here set forth.
Included in the volume are a complete bibliography of
the literature of the subject, syllabi used in a number of
states as a basis for the work, and specimen sets of ex-
amination papers used in granting credit for Bible study.
Cloth. viii-\-S17 pages. $1.50.
WORLD BOOK COMPANY
YONKERS-ON-HUDSON, NeW YoRK
2126 Prairie Avenue, Chicago
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UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY
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