The History of Pedagogy

by Gabriel Compayré

“Christian instruction was neglected, not to say dishonored,” is the statement of contemporaries. The children who attended the schools of the poor were subjected to public contempt. They were obliged to wear on their caps a distinctive badge. In brief, far from progressing, primary instruction was rather in a state of decadence.

275. Démia and the Primary Schools of Lyons.—Among the progressive men who struggled against this unhappy state of affairs, and who tried to develop the Catholic schools, we must mention, before La Salle, Démia, a priest of Lyons, who, in 1666, founded the Congregation of the Brethren of Saint Charles, for the instruction of poor children. The Institute of La Salle was not organized till eighteen years later, in 1684. In 1668, having addressed to the provosts of the merchants of the city of Lyons a warm appeal, his Proposals for the establishment of Christian schools for the instruction of the poor, Démia obtained an annual grant of two hundred livres. In 1675 he was charged by “express command” of the archbishop of Lyons “with the management and direction of the schools of that city and diocese,” and drew up a body of school regulations which was quoted as a model.[158] For the method of “teaching to read, of learning the catechism, of correcting children, and similar things,” Démia conformed to the book known as the Parish School (École paroissiale), of which we shall presently say a word. He took it upon himself to proceed “to the examination of the religion, the ability, and the good morals, of the persons who proposed to teach school.” But, what was of greater moment, he established, for preparing and training them, a sort of seminary.

A few quotations will give an idea of Démia’s zeal in the establishment of Christian schools.

“This establishment is of such importance and of so great utility, that there is nothing in our political organization which is more worthy of the care and the watchfulness of the magistrates, since on it depend our peace and public tranquillity. The poor, not having the means of educating their children, leave them in ignorance of their obligations.... Thus we see, with keen displeasure, that such an education of the children of the poor is totally neglected, although it is the most important interest of the State, of which they comprise the largest part; and, although it is quite as necessary, and even more so, to maintain public schools for them, as to support colleges for the children of families in good circumstances....”

276. Claude Joly.—In 1676, Claude Joly, precentor of Notre Dame, “collator, director, and judge of the primary schools of the city, the suburbs, and the outskirts of Paris,” published his Christian and Moral Counsels for the Instruction of Children. There is but little to gather from this work, where the author is so forgetful of elementary instruction as to speak only of secondary instruction and of the education of princes. What most concerns Claude Joly is to put in force the regulations which forbid the association of boys and girls in the schools. The separation of the sexes was for a long time an absolute principle in France. Démia, in article nine of his regulations, restores the ordinance of the archbishop of Lyons, “which forbids school-masters to admit girls, and school-mistresses to admit boys.” Rollin was of the same opinion. Claude Joly, in the capacity of chief precentor, bluntly claimed his sovereign rights in the matter of primary instruction:—

“We shall contest the power claimed by the rectors of Paris to control the schools, under the name and pretext of charity, without the permission of the chief precentor, to whom alone belongs this power. To him, also, belongs the right of nomination to the schools of the religious and secular communities. We shall disclose, besides, the attempts of writers to interfere with the teaching of orthography, which belongs only to good grammarians, that is, to the masters of the little schools.”

We see to what petty questions of prerogative was sacrificed, in the seventeenth century, the great cause of popular instruction.

277. The Book of the Parish School.—Under the title, The Parish School, or the Manner of Properly Instructing the Children in the Little Schools, a priest of the diocese of Paris had written, in 1655, a school manual, often reprinted,[159] which became the general standard of the schools during the years that followed, and which gives an exact idea of what was narrow and poorly defined in the primary instruction of that period.

The author of the Parish School does not have a high opinion of the office of the teacher, which he regards as an employment without lustre, without pleasure, and without interest. He does not expect great results from instruction, of which he is pleased to say, that it is not completely useless. It is true that instruction is reduced to a very few things,—reading, writing, and counting. To this the author adds religion and politeness.