Another distinctive feature of this bill, which is not without value, is the respect shown the character and functions of the teacher. On public occasions the schoolmaster shall wear a medal with this inscription: He who instructs is a second father. The form is rather pretentious, but the sentiment is good. Other articles do not merit the same commendation, particularly the one which established theatres in each canton, in which men and women would take part in music and dancing.
The bill of Lakanal, vigorously opposed by a part of the Assembly, was not adopted. Under the leadership of Robespierre, the Convention gave preference to the dictatorial and violent measure of Lepelletier Saint-Fargeau.
456. Lepelletier Saint-Fargeau (1760-1793).—Assassinated in 1793, Lepelletier Saint-Fargeau left among his papers an educational bill which Robespierre took up, and which he presented to the Assembly July 13, 1793, on the occasion of the debate opened on the motion of Barrère. A month later the bill was passed by the Convention, but before being carried into operation, the decree was revoked. The Assembly receded from the accomplishment of a reform in which some good intentions could not atone for measures that, on the whole, were mischievous and tyrannical.
457. His Scheme of Education.—The plan of Lepelletier scarcely deserves the admiration which Michelet gives it, who salutes in this work the “revolution of childhood,” and who declares that it is “admirable in spirit, and in no respect chimerical.” An imitation with but little originality of the institutions of Lycurgus and the reveries of Plato, the plan of Lepelletier is scarcely more than an historical curiosity.
458. Lepelletier and Condorcet.—Lepelletier accepted Condorcet’s plan in all that relates to secondary schools, institutes, and lycées, that is to say, higher primary instruction, secondary instruction, and superior instruction.
“I find,” he said, “in these three courses a plan which seems to me wisely conceived.”
But Lepelletier follows only his own fancy in the conception of those curious boarding-schools, little barracks for childhood, in which he confined all children by force, wresting them from their parents, and placing at the expense of the State their moral training, as well as their material support.
459. Obligatory Attendance in Boarding-Schools.—In education, Lepelletier represents the doctrine of the Jacobins. In order to make France republican, he would employ radical and absolute measures.