The History of Pedagogy

by Gabriel Compayré

420. General Principles.—As Montesquieu has said, “the laws of education ought to be relative to the principles of government.” It is by this truth that Talleyrand is inspired in the long considerations that serve as a preamble to his bill.

What was to be done in the presence of a constitution which, limiting the powers of the king, called the entire people to participate in political life? That constitution would have remained sterile, would have been but a dead letter, if a suitable education had not come to vivify it by causing it to pass, so to speak, into the blood of the nation. In what did the new régime consist? You have separated, said Talleyrand to the members, you have separated the will of the whole, or the power of making the laws, from the executive power, which you have reserved to the king. But that general will must be upright, and, in order to be upright, it must be enlightened and instructed. After having given power to the people, you ought to teach them wisdom. Of what use would it be to enfranchise brutal and unconscious forces, to turn them over to their own keeping? Instruction is the necessary counterpoise of liberty. The law, which is henceforth the work of the people, ought not to be at the mercy of the tumultuous opinions of an ignorant multitude.

421. Education as related to Liberty and Equality.—Talleyrand is pleased with his thought, and, considering in turn the two fundamental ideas of the Revolution, the idea of equality and the idea of liberty, he shows, not without some length of analysis, that instruction is necessary, on the one hand, to create free individuals, by giving to them a conscience and a reason, and on the other, to draw men together by diminishing the inequality of intelligences.

422. Rules for Public Instruction.—Instruction is due to all. There must be schools in the villages as in the cities. Instruction ought to be given by all; there ought to be no privilege in instruction. Finally, instruction ought to extend to all subjects; everything shall be taught which can be taught:—

“In a well organized society, though no one can attain to universal knowledge, it should nevertheless be possible to learn everything.”

423. Political Education.—At the basis of every educational system there is always a dominant and essential thought. In the Middle Age—and the Middle Age is continued in the schools of the Jesuits—it is the idea of salvation, it is the preparation of the soul for the future life. In the seventeenth century it is the conception of a perfect justness of spirit joined to uprightness of heart; such was the ideal of the solitaries of Port Royal. In 1792 politics became the almost exclusive preoccupation of the educators of youth. Everything else—religion, accuracy of judgment, nobility of heart—is relegated to the second place: man is nothing more than a political animal, brought into the world to know, to love, and to obey the constitution.

The Declaration of the Rights of Man became, in the system of Talleyrand, the catechism of childhood. It is necessary that the future citizen learn to know, to love, to obey, and finally to perfect the constitution. We cannot help thinking that Talleyrand himself showed a marvellous aptitude for loving and obeying the constitution. Unfortunately this has not always been the case!

424. Universal Morality.—One of the most beautiful pages of Talleyrand’s work is certainly that in which he recommends the teaching of universal morality, and claims the autonomy of natural laws, distinct from all positive religion.

“We must learn to infuse ourselves with morality, which is the first need of all constitutions.... Morality must be taught as a real science, whose principles will be demonstrated to the reason of all men, and to that of all ages. It is only in this way that it will resist all trials. It has long been a matter of lamentation to see men of all nations and of all religions make it depend exclusively on that multitude of opinions which divide them. From this have resulted great evils; for abandoning morality to uncertainty, and often to absurdity, it has necessarily been compromised; it has been made versatile and unsettled. It is time to establish it upon its own bases, and to show men that if baneful divisions separate them, they at least have in morality a common meeting place where they all ought to take refuge and unite for protection. It is necessary, then, to detach it in some sort from everything else, in order to reunite it at once to that which merits our approval and our homage.... This change is simple and injures nothing; above all, it is possible. How is it possible not to see, in fact, that abstraction being made of every system and of every opinion, and by considering in men only their relations with other men, they can be taught what is good and just, made to love it, and made to find happiness in virtuous actions and wretchedness in those which are not so?”

425. Four Grades of Instruction.—The organization of instruction, in Talleyrand’s bill, was “to be combined with that of the government,” and to be modeled after the division of administrative functions. The Rapport established four grades of instruction. There was a school for each canton, corresponding to each primary assembly. Then came intermediate or secondary instruction, intended, if not for all, at least for the greater number, and given in the principal town of the district, or arrondissement. In the third place, special schools, scattered over the territory of the kingdom, in the principal towns of the departments, prepare young men for the different professions. Finally, the select intelligences find at Paris, in the National Institute, all that constitutes the higher instruction.