“Teachers will call to their aid the pupils whose intelligence shall have made the most rapid progress; and they will thus be able, very easily, to give to four classes of pupils, in the same session, all the attention needed for their progress. At the same time, the efforts made by the most competent to teach what they know to their schoolmates, will be much more instructive to themselves than the lessons they receive from their masters.”
Further, let us notice title III. of the proposed decree relative to the measures to be taken in order to make obligatory the use of the French language, and to abolish the patois, or particular idioms. The minimum salary of men teachers was fixed at six hundred francs. The appointment of teachers was entrusted to the heads of families, who were to elect one from a list prepared by a “commission of educated persons” appointed by the Councils-General of the communes and the Directories of departments.
448. The Bill of Lanthenas.—The discussion of the bill of Lanthenas began on December 12, 1792, but only article first was carried, and the bill itself did not become a law.
On December 20, another member of the Convention, Romme, mathematician, deputy from Puy-de-Dôme, read a new report on public instruction.
449. The Bill of Romme.—The bill of Lanthenas aimed at only the first grade of instruction, but the report of Romme embraced the four grades of instruction, and was but little more than a reproduction of Condorcet’s work. But no legislative measure followed the reading of his bill, and up to the 30th of May, 1793, there is scarcely anything to be noted, as the educational work of the Convention, save the bill of Rabaud Saint-Étienne on public festivals, and the report of Arbogast on elementary books.
450. National Holidays.—It is difficult to form an idea of the importance which the men of this period attributed to the educational influence of national holidays. At variance on so many points, they all agree in thinking that the French people could be instructed and regenerated simply by establishing popular solemnities.
“It is a kind of institution,” said Robespierre, “which ought to be considered as an essential part of public education,—I mean national holidays.”
Daunou also persisted in considering national holidays as the most certain and the most comprehensive means of public instruction. The decree passed at his request established seven national holidays: that of the foundation of the Republic, of young men, of husbands, of thanksgiving, of agriculture, of liberty, of old men.
451. Elementary Books.—An important point in the pedagogy of the Revolution was the attention given to the composition of elementary books. On several occasions the Convention put up for competition these modest works intended to aid parents or teachers in their task. It was one of the happiest thoughts of that period to desire that there should be placed in the hands of parents simple methods and well-arranged books which might teach them how to bring up their children. The difficulty of this kind of composition was understood, and so application was made to the most distinguished writers. Bernardin de Saint Pierre was employed to edit the Elements of Morality.