The Swiss Republic

by Boyd Winchester

The efforts of Pestalozzi went down in clouds, and when he died, at the age of eighty-one, in 1827, he had seen the apparent failure of all his toils. He had not, however, failed in reality. And when twenty years later the centenary of his birth was celebrated by school-masters, not only in his native country but throughout Germany, it was found that Pestalozzian ideas had been sown, and were bearing fruit, over the greater part of central Europe. Even to-day school-masters might learn much from Pestalozzi, in aiming more at a plan of education founded on a knowledge of human nature, and its modes of instruction which shall better develop their pupils’ faculties. The true functions of Pestalozzi, it is alleged, were to educate ideas, not children. Even those who are most averse to theoretical views, which they call unpractical, will admit, as practical men, that their methods are probably susceptible of improvement, and that even a theorist might lead them to make many observations which would otherwise have escaped them; might teach them to examine what their aim really was, and then whether they are using the most suitable methods to accomplish it. Such a theorist is Pestalozzi. He points to a high ideal, and bids us measure our modes of education by it. When Switzerland would honor Pestalozzi’s name, the monument she built was more than brass or bronze. It was a school,—a school where the memoirs of the man were carved, not on wood or stone, but in the minds of happy, growing youths, the fortunate beneficiaries of a system whose foundation he laid.[73] Down to 1848 all the public schools in Switzerland had been in the hands of the Cantons; in the federal constitution, adopted at that time, it was provided that the Confederation might establish a university and a polytechnic school. A proposition for a university was soon thereafter submitted and rejected. Subsequently a law was passed, in 1854, establishing a federal polytechnical school. In view of the antagonism existing between the German, French, and Italian Cantons, and the social friction that followed between the adherents of the different creeds, it was found important that the Confederation should be in a position to strengthen and direct the forces which make for unity, and attention was directed to the vital forces which proceed from a wisely-arranged system of public instruction. This resulted in more extensive power being conferred upon the Confederation, in the revised Constitution of 1874, with respect to education. The 27th Article of the Constitution declares: “The Confederation has the right to establish, besides the existing polytechnical school, a federal university and other institutions for higher instruction, or may assist in the support of said institutions. The Cantons shall provide for primary education, which must be adequate, and shall be placed exclusively under the direction of the civil authorities. It is compulsory, and in the public schools free. The public schools shall be open to the adherents of all religious sects without any offence to their freedom of conscience or of belief. The Confederation shall take the necessary measures against such Cantons as shall not conform to these provisions.” Primary instruction was first made compulsory under this Constitution of 1874. The promotion and organization of the elementary education are left in the hands of the Cantons, subject to the control of the Confederation; but it must be exclusively under the civil authority. This does not exclude the clergy—if not Jesuits—from the position of teachers and other school officers, but simply requires, if occupying these positions, they must stand on the same footing as laymen. No person who belongs to a religious order, claiming allegiance paramount to the state, can be a teacher in the public schools. The provision guaranteeing freedom of conscience and belief is complied with by the Cantons in a way suitable to their wants. Religious instruction is usually given on fixed days, at stated hours, so that every facility for absenting themselves is afforded to children whose parents wish them only to receive secular instruction. In many instances the religious instruction is confined to truths common to all Christians, and to readings from the Bible. In reference to the relation of the schools to religion in Switzerland, Matthew Arnold reported: “Whoever has seen the divisions caused in a so-called logical nation like the French by this principle of the neutrality of the popular school in matters of religion might expect differently here. None whatever has arisen. The Swiss communities, applying the principle for themselves and not leaving theorists and politicians to apply it for them, have done in the matter what they consider proper, and have in every popular school religious instruction in the religion of the majority, a Catholic instruction in Catholic Cantons, like Luzern, a Protestant in Protestant Cantons, like Zurich; and there is no unfair dealing, no proselytizing, no complaint.” The first school-year varies from five to seven years of age, and runs up to twelve, except in a few Cantons, where it extends to the fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth years. Primary instruction is left to the determination of the several Cantons, only it must be, under the constitution, “adequate.” With the exception of the Canton of Solothurn, where all children must receive their primary instruction in the public schools, a person is not obliged to send his children to the public school. He is perfectly free to have them instructed wherever he wishes, provided they receive an education, at least as good as that which is given in the public schools. Parents who neglect or refuse to do one or the other are cited before the authorities and subject to a fine, and in case of a repetition of the offence to imprisonment. In most of the Cantons the gratuity covers books and other school-materials to children of indigent parents. There is no class of vagrant or destitute children which the system fails to reach; even to those too poor to obtain proper food and clothing, both public and private assistance are freely rendered. The obligation resting upon the Confederation to see that the Cantons meet the constitutional requirements has so far not been supplemented by any federal legislation, prescribing the method of such enforcement, or imposing any penalties for disregard of the law. Certain Cantons having failed to do their duties in this respect, the Federal Assembly in 1882 instructed the Federal Council to take steps to insure a general compliance with the provisions of the constitution. The Council proposed the creation of a Federal Department of Public Instruction, with a number of inspectors, whose duty it would be to enforce the law. So soon as the Assembly submitted this suggestion in the form of a federal law, nearly two hundred thousand citizens demanded its subjection to the Referendum (30,000 was sufficient to do so), and upon the taking of the popular vote, it was rejected by the extraordinary majority of 146,129. It was an indignant protest against what was regarded as an attempted interference with their local home-government of the schools. Therefore the details of school administration, organization, and inspection still remain in the hands of the educational department of each Canton. In some Cantons inspectors are appointed by the educational department; in others, it is voluntarily conducted by a board composed chiefly of professional men,—pastors or persons of influence. These inspectors decide as to the course of studies, the books to be used, and act as a sort of tribunal to hear and decide all controversies that may arise between the teachers and the local authorities. As a rule, women are not eligible as school inspectors. Every Commune, in addition to the inspectors, has a school commission, elected by the communal assembly. They are charged with providing sufficient school accommodation, and keeping the buildings in repair; also to visit the schools and see that any suggestions made by the inspector have been properly carried out. The Commune provides the sites for the school buildings, and these are erected at the joint expense of the Commune and Canton. Great attention is given to the construction of these school-houses, as to their comfort and convenience; the windows must face the east or southeast, and the benches so arranged that the light falls upon the pupil’s left hand. Then there is sure to be a large and grassy plot for the children’s play-ground, with a fountain of pure water on it, shady trees, and all the accessories for athletic exercise. The school-house is the most commodious, modern, and handsome edifice to be seen in a Swiss town. One may look in vain for the court-house and town-hall, but on the most central and costly site is the school-house, the pride of every city square and village slope. The schools are not mixed, and when the Commune is not able to sustain separate schools, the boys attend in the morning, and the girls in the afternoon. Saturday is not a holiday. Each class has so many hours of schooling for the week, apportioned among the six days. Every form of corporal punishment is forbidden. No bodily pain, no bodily shame, is suffered in the schools. Chastisement, it is claimed, first brutalizes a child; second, makes him cowardly; and, third, blunts his sense of shame, which must soon form the bulwark round virtue. “A lad has rights,” says the Swiss teacher. “We cannot stint his food, we cannot lock him up, we cannot crown him with a dunce’s cap, or we cannot make a guy of him. Our discipline is wholly moral; our means are prizes, good words, all leading up to public acts of honor. Should we have any incorrigible ones, they are expelled, but expulsion is a very serious matter, and must be exercised under prescribed rules, with due notice to parents and the school officials; and at first only temporary and conditional, and never final and absolute, without the formal sanction of the school commission. This emergency rarely occurs. A threat or admonition suffices, for expulsion is considered only one degree from ruin.” Obedience which is rendered merely because there is a sense of authority about the commander destroys the sympathetic relation which should exist between the teacher and pupil. The best and only true discipline is that which is secured, not through habits created from the will of the teacher, says Professor Shaler, of Harvard, but won through the exercise of the will of the pupil; only when accomplished by sympathetic stimulus, is the effect truly educational. Manliness, sincerity, and conscientiousness are its legitimate fruits; it fosters honesty and truthfulness more than any regimen discipline.

The pupil’s manners and appearance are also cared for. He is taught how to appear and act no less than how to read and write; how to walk, stand, and speak; that his hands and face should be kept clean, as well as his papers and books. A blot upon his page and a smudge upon his face are regarded as equally bad. “A book befouled,” the teacher tells us, “with grime is wasted, and our simple economical habits will not suffer such waste; turn over any of these books, which are in daily use, no leaf is torn or dog-eared, nor the covers defaced with scribbling.” The same observation would apply to the school furniture and building. The desks, though extremely plain, look as if they are daily washed and polished; not a spot nor splash of ink to be seen on their surface, not any evidence of the bad boy’s knife; the large corridors and spacious stairways show no scratch or scrawl; the wall free from fingermarks and inscriptions, and no bits of paper on the floor. The children, representing all classes of society, from the patrician to the poorest peasant, are neatly and comfortably clad; none dirty, ragged, or shoeless. To an expression of surprise at this, we are informed “that if a child comes to school with face begrimed or clothes torn, he is washed, cleaned, and mended up, and then sent home; the mother gets ashamed on finding that some other woman, or it may be a man, has had to wash her child; the child also becomes mortified, and it is never necessary to repeat the treatment.” The moment that a pupil is on the street he has passed from the circle of his home, and that moment has commenced the school’s authority. The regulations, printed on slips and dropped in every house, contain, among a score of others, the following rule relating to conduct on the street: “Delay of any kind between the scholar’s home and school is not allowed. No whooping, yelling, throwing stones and snow-balls, teasing children, ridiculing age or deformity can be endured. Grown persons shall be met with kind civility, politely greeted as they pass, and thus shall honor be reflected on the school.” There is very little contumacious absence from school. The children have the habit of going to school as a matter of course, and the parents equally the habit of acquiescing in their going. The Federal Factory Act of 1877, with a purpose of preventing any interference with attendance at school, forbids the employment, in a mill or public workshop, of any child until he has attained the age of fifteen. And every Swiss recruit for military service is required to pass an examen pédagogique, with a view of enabling the authorities to ascertain the degree of instruction attained by the youth of the country. This examination consists of arithmetic, geography, and Swiss history; and those who do not come up to the minimum educational standard are required to undergo instruction at the recruit school, and the odium attendant upon this is found to exercise a marked beneficial effect on the education of the peasantry. The teachers of the primary schools are nominated by the school inspectors and elected by the Communal Assembly. Teachers of the higher schools are appointed by the Cantonal Director of Education and confirmed by the Board of Educational Department. They are elected for a term of six years, and after service on a differential scale are retired on a pension of not less than one-half of their salary at the time of their retirement. Each Commune decides for itself whether male or female teachers shall be employed. The teachers are trained for a period of four years in one of the cantonal normal schools. In the Grisons and Neuchâtel, normal schools are attached to the secondary schools, but in the Cantons of Zurich, Bern, Luzern, Schwyz, Freiburg, Solothurn, St. Gallen, Aargau, Thurgau, Ticino, Vaud, and Valais separate establishments exist. The students are usually lodged and boarded at the actual cost; and free and half-free places are open for those unable to pay in full. Each Commune must pay to the primary school-teacher a minimum salary of 550 francs, but these salaries will run from 600 to 1000 francs, with free lodging and fuel, the latter being an important item of expense. Those in the larger towns receive from 1200 to 1700 francs, secondary school-teachers are paid from 2200 to 2500 francs, and teachers in the gymnasiums an average of 3300 francs. The Cantons assist the Communes in augmenting the lower salaries and in the payment of the pensions. After thirty years of service, or in case of disability or illness contracted in the line of professional duty, teachers may retire on the pension above indicated. In some Cantons, after five years of service, 100 francs are added to the salary, and an additional 100 for each quinquennium. In Basel a female teacher, after ten years of service, is entitled to a supplemental salary of 250 francs per annum; after fifteen years, 357 francs per annum, and then on voluntary retirement, after fifteen years of service, a pension for life equal to two per cent. on the amount she was being paid at time of retirement. Thus the Swiss teacher has pragmatic rights,—that is, he has a legal claim to a fixed salary, and to a retiring pension in case of age or illness. The Swiss teacher is to his pupil a father and companion. He leads and assists on the play-ground the same as he does in the school-room; a free and unrestrained companionship, beautiful as it is beneficial, unmixed with foolish fondness or paternal pride. Together they will run and leap and laugh and dance and sing as well as learn. The hours of study past, the pupil and teacher wander to the forests and the field; together pluck wild flowers and plants; together climb the hills, cross lakes and streams, searching for curious rocks and plants, learning again from them the lessons of the day. This is the very essence of education: for a man who professes to instruct to get among his pupils, study their character, gain their affections, and form their inclinations and aversions, together with that affectionate vigilance which is experienced in the best home-circle. These men regard the school as a psychological observatory, where they are to practise the very difficult art of discovering the capacities of the pupils, receiving them with a tender consideration for the good and evil they bring with them, and with an apt adjustment of the resources of education to their individual needs. The primary or communal schools come first in number. In every hamlet, where there may be twenty girls and boys, the communal officials must provide a school-house and hire a master. These are supposed to embrace the pupilage for the first five or six school-years. The lessons average from twenty to thirty weekly, and they have annual vacations from ten to twelve weeks. The children who are old enough to assist in work at home are only required to attend one-half of the day during the harvest season, or other busy times. In some instances there is provided for this class what is known as the supplementary school, which is held only on two mornings of the week; the aim being to help the pupil retain what he has already learned in the primary school until he can again resume his regular attendance. A curious custom prevails in some of these communal schools with respect to the supply of the necessary firewood in winter. Every boy or girl must contribute a piece; and in winter the children may be constantly seen tearing down-hill, each with a log of wood tied to a luge (little sledge) as his contribution to the school-fire.

The course of study in the primary school embraces:

1. Religion.

2. Native language.

3. Arithmetic.

4. Writing.

5. Physical and political geography.

6. History of Switzerland.

7. Elements of civic instruction.