A student's history of education

by Frank Pierrepont Graves

b. Plan of a Jesuit schoolroom of the seventeenth century. B represents the teacher, C the monitors, and D, E, O, X, and I various student officials. The numbered lines represent rows of students, known as decuriae. When a student was called upon, his ‘rival’ arose from the corresponding place in the other group; and as each recited, the other endeavored to correct him in some error.

Fig. 18.—Education of the Jesuits.

Nevertheless, the Jesuits furnished the most effective education during the latter half of the sixteenth, the entire seventeenth, and the early part of the eighteenth Phenomenal growth of the number of colleges and students. centuries. The growth of their schools was phenomenal. By the death of Loyola (1556) there were already one hundred colleges, and a century and a half later they had increased to seven hundred and sixty-nine institutions, spread throughout the world. The average number of students in attendance at any of these colleges during the seventeenth century was about three hundred, and in several of the larger centers there were between one and two thousand, and the famous College of Clermont (now Lycée Louis le Grand) at Paris is said to have run up to three thousand. At a modest estimate, there must have been some two hundred thousand students in the Jesuit colleges when they were at their height. Prominent graduates. Their graduates seem to have become prominent in every important activity of life, and included a large number of the noted authors, prelates, statesmen, and generals of the time. By the middle of the eighteenth century, however, the ideals and content of education had somewhat changed, and the Jesuits did not adapt their course to the new conditions. Moreover, the Jesuits seem to have become powerful, ambitious, and somewhat arrogant. Quarrels and banishments. They quarreled frequently with bishops, other monastic orders, governments, and universities. Finally, after they had been banished from France, Spain, and Portugal, in 1773 the pope himself dissolved the Society of Jesus. Forty years later the order was restored, but, owing to the development of educational ideals and organization and the increase of educational institutions, their work has never since become relatively as effective or held as important a place in education.

The Organization of the Education of the Port Royalists.—A type of Catholic education radically opposed to that of the Jesuits was created by a group of men belonging to the religious body known as the Jansenists. The doctrines of the Jansenists were formulated in 1621 by Cornelius Jansen, a professor in the University of Louvain. While striving to retain their place within the Church, the Jansenists opposed the prevailing doctrines Adopted rationalistic philosophy. of confession and penance, and adopted the rationalistic philosophy of Descartes. They also held that humanity is naturally corrupt, except as it is watched and guided, and that only a relatively few can be saved. These doctrines probably influenced a body of Jansenists that established a new departure in the way of education at the convent of Port Royal at Chevreuse. In 1643 the ‘Port Royalists’ endeavored to remove what few children they could from the temptations of the world to a school started in this convent. Similar institutions quickly sprang up in the vicinity and then spread through Paris. To carry out their ideal of careful oversight, these schools usually took only twenty to twenty-five pupils, and each master had under him five or six boys, whom he never allowed out of his immediate supervision ‘Little’ schools. day or night. Hence these institutions were known as ‘little schools.’

The Port Royal Course and Method of Teaching.—Since the Port Royalists held that character was of more importance than knowledge, and reason was to be Reason rather than memory. developed rather than memory, these ‘little schools’ sought to impart an education that should be sound and lasting, rather than brilliant. Unlike the Jesuits, they did not start their pupils with Latin, but with the vernacular, since this was within their comprehension. As soon as they possessed a feeling for good literature, they began the study of Latin through a minimum grammar Latin through the vernacular. written in French, and soon took up the Latin authors, rendering them into the vernacular. Greek literature was treated in similar fashion. To train the reason, the Logic and geometry. older pupils were also taught logic and geometry. The course of study, however, was mostly literary, and had no regard for science or investigation. Port Royal presented the best elements of the education of the past, but did not see beyond it. The methods introduced some striking innovations. The leaders in the Port Royal education departed from the alphabetic plan in teaching Phonetic method. their pupils to read, and developed a phonetic method. The Port Royalists also refused to permit the use of Indifference. emulation and prizes in their schools, but their exclusion of rivalry resulted in indifference. They were never able to secure the energy, earnestness, and pleasing environment of the Jesuit colleges. They did, however, succeed in inculcating a general spirit of piety without the formal teaching of doctrine.

Closing of the Port Royalist Schools and Its Effects.—In Jesuits lost sympathy. 1661 the Port Royalist schools were closed by the order of Louis XIV through the influence of the Jesuits. But this act cost the Jesuits dearly. Not only did it lose them sympathy, but it furnished the Port Royalists occasion to issue tracts against Jesuitism that have injured its repute ever since. This closing of their schools also gave the Port Royalists the opportunity of becoming educators in a larger sense by producing a great variety Port Royalists produced educational treatises. of writings upon their system. Later on, too, Rollin (1661-1741), who was twice elected rector of the University of Paris, summarized in his Treatise on Studies the Port Royalist reforms wrought in that institution.

La Salle and the Schools of the Christian Brothers.—The Port Royalists were, however, like the Jesuits, engrossed with secondary and higher education, and gave little heed to the education of all the people in the rudiments. In fact, until toward the close of the seventeenth century, the Catholics generally did not succeed in inaugurating any effective or widespread movement Little elementary education before La Salle. toward elementary education. Numerous attempts before this were made through catechism schools and various reformers and religious orders, but teachers were scarce and often ignorant and poorly trained, and there was little progress before the organization of the Brothers of the Christian Schools through the self-sacrificing efforts of Jean Baptiste de la Salle (1651-1719). The organization sprang out of a group of five masters engaged in teaching schools for the poor in the city of Development of the schools at Rheims: Rheims in 1679, but it was not until three years later that La Salle completed his regulations, founded the brotherhood, and moved the members into a permanent home. The order flourished, and neighboring towns soon endeavored to secure its members as teachers in their schools for the poor. Within a year or two, four schools in and about Rheims were placed under masters trained in the house of the Christian Brothers, and a number of other institutions were soon organized in the vicinity upon the same basis.

But, being unable to supply the constant demands for his teachers that came from districts outside the towns, La Salle undertook to train boys who were sent him by the rural clergy, and were expected to return to their homes to teach after their training. To accomplish this, he established in 1684 a ‘seminary for schoolmasters’ in a wing of the house of the brotherhood, and two other seminaries were opened in neighboring towns the following year. Four years later La Salle opened a house for Paris, the brotherhood near Paris, and the Christian Brothers were speedily requested to take charge of the schools of several parishes. Despite the jealousy and opposition of the established order of schoolmasters and of many parties in Church and State, the schools and seminaries of the Brothers greatly increased in Paris, and were rapidly extended throughout France. At Paris also La Salle started the ‘Christian academy,’ in which drawing, geometry, and architecture were taught ambitious poor boys on Sunday, and introduced boarding colleges for higher secondary training. And these institutions likewise spread through France and the rest of Europe and Saint Yon. ([Fig. 19]). In 1705 La Salle retired to the estate known as Saint Yon, near Rouen, and there opened a home for the brotherhood. Here he also founded a famous boarding-school in which he trained boys for soldiery, farming, trade, and various other vocations. Before long he likewise organized in conjunction an industrial training for youthful delinquents, and both the vocational school and the ‘protectory’ soon became models for many similar institutions in France and elsewhere.

The Aim, Curriculum, and Method of the Christian Brothers’ Schools.—The plan of the schools of the Christian Brothers was eventually worked out and crystallized in a fixed system under the title of Conduct of Schools. This code has not remained quite as definite and uniform as the Ratio Studiorum of the Jesuits, for changes and revisions are permitted, and modern methods and subjects have from time to time been introduced. Considerable latitude, moreover, has been allowed to the individual houses by the Superior General at the head of the order, and by the Brothers Visitors, who have charge of the districts. The educational aim of the Christian Religious aim. Brothers has been preëminently religious, and the chief means of attaining this have been strict vigilance, good example, and catechetical instruction. The course has included the studies of the best schools of the time, and Besides rudiments and religion, more practical subjects. added other more practical subjects. Besides the rudiments—reading, writing, and arithmetic—and religious instruction and good manners, mathematics, history, botany, geography, drawing, architecture, hydrography, navigation, and other technical subjects have often been taught, and in the industrial schools a manual and vocational training has been furnished. La Salle seems to have made a great advance, too, in educational ‘Simultaneous’ method. economy by perfecting and applying the ‘simultaneous’ method, which had been practiced in a crude form by some of his forerunners. By this method is meant grading the children according to their capacity, and having those in each grade use the same book and follow the same lesson under a single master, instead of instructing each pupil individually, as was generally the custom then. Likewise, the seminaries or training schools of the Christian Brothers contributed much to the advancement Training of teachers. of efficiency in teaching. For the first time teachers of ability and training were made possible for the elementary schools.

Influence of the Schools of the Christian Brothers.—The work of the Christian Brothers has met with steady growth and development. By the time of La Salle’s Spread death (1719), there had come to be twenty-seven houses of the order, with two hundred and seventy-four brothers, educating about nine thousand pupils. Before the close of the century these numbers had about quadrupled, and now they have increased nearly a hundredfold since the founder’s day. During the nineteenth century these institutions were established in all the states of Europe, Asia, Northern Africa, and America. The educational system has been much modified and expanded, and now includes colleges, technical and industrial schools, academies and expansion of the work. and high schools, elementary and grammar schools, commercial schools, asylums, and protectories. Thus La Salle and his schools of the Christian Brothers have performed a great service for education in all lines, but especially in the promotion and enrichment of elementary training, which had previously been so neglected.