The History of Pedagogy

by Gabriel Compayré

December 24, 1792, Arbogast had submitted to the Convention a proposed decree in which it was said:—

“It is only the superior men in a science, or in an art, those who have sounded all its depths, and have carried it to its farthest limits, who are capable of composing such elementary treatises as are desirable.”

452. Decree of May 30, 1793.—The first decree of the Convention relative to primary schools was passed May 30, 1793. But this laconic law contained nothing very new. Besides, it was forgotten in the storm which on the next day, May 31, swept away the Girondists, and gave to the Montagnards the political supremacy.

453. Lakanal (1762-1845).—After the revolution of May 31, among the men who, in the committee on public instruction and in the assembly itself, were occupied with the educational organization of France, we must assign the first place to Lakanal and Daunou. On June 26, 1793, three days after the adoption of the new constitution, Lakanal brought to the tribune the bill which he had drawn up in conjunction with Daunou and Sieyès.

Lakanal is one of the purest and most remarkable characters of the French Revolution.[210] “Lakanal,” said Marat, to whom some one had denounced him, “works too much to have the time to conspire.” Industrious and thoughtful, after having taught philosophy with the “Doctrinaires,” of whom he was the pupil, he became the first, after Condorcet, of the educators of the Revolution. “His appearance,” says Paul Bert, “has always particularly attracted me. It unites gentleness with force, energy with serenity. We feel that this austere citizen has never known any other passion than that of well-doing, and has neither desired nor obtained any other reward than that of having done his duty. He despises violence of language, and hates that of acts; and so we do not find him, under the Empire, a baron like Jean-Bon Saint André, a minister like Fouché, or a senator like a whole herd.”

454. Daunou (1761-1840).—At an early period in his life, Daunou had taught philosophy in the colleges of the Oratorians, of whom he was a member. In 1789 he published in the Journal Encyclopédique, a plan of national education which was approved by the Oratory, and which he presented to the Constituent Assembly in 1790. In the Convention he took an active part in the work of the committee on public instruction, and assisted in the preparation of Lakanal’s first bill. In the same year he published an Essay on Public Instruction. In the Council of the Five Hundred he was appointed to make a report on the organization of special schools. Under the Empire he accepted the management of the national archives. Under the Restoration he was appointed professor of history in the College of France. Finally, after 1830, we find him once more in the Chamber of Deputies, giving proof of unusual energy and vitality, and presenting in opposition to the minister of public instruction, de Montalivet, a counter-bill, the principal aim of which was to lodge with the municipal authorities the administration of schools, a power which the government wished to leave in the hands of the inspectors.

455. The Bill of Lakanal, Sieyès, and Daunou.—These are the principal provisions of this bill: a school for each thousand inhabitants; separate schools for girls and boys; the election of teachers entrusted to a board of inspectors composed of three members, and located at the government centre of each district; the general organization of methods, regulations, and school régime placed in the hands of a central commission sitting with the Corps Législatif, and placed under its authority; an education which embraces the whole man, at once intellectual, physical, moral, and industrial; the first lessons in reading given to boys as to girls by a woman teacher; arithmetic, geometry, physics, and morals included in the programme of instruction; visits to hospitals, prisons, and workshops; finally, liberty granted to private initiative to found schools.

“The law can put no veto on the right which all citizens have to open private courses and schools, free in all grades of instruction, and to direct them as shall seem to them best.” (Art. 61.)

This was pushing liberality rather far.