466. The Lakanal Law (Nov. 17, 1794).—There still remained something of the spirit of Lepelletier in the Bouquier law, though the idea of an education in common had been abandoned; but the Lakanal law openly breaks with the tendencies of Robespierre and his friends.
The law which was passed November 17, 1794, upon the report of Lakanal, reproduced in its spirit and in its principal provisions the original bill which the influence of Robespierre had defeated.
The following was the programme of instruction contained in this law.
The instructor shall teach:—
“1. Reading and writing; 2. the declaration of the rights of man and the constitution; 3. elementary lessons on republican morals; 4. the elements of the French language both spoken and written; 5. the rules of simple calculation and of surveying; 6. lessons on the principal phenomena and the most common productions of nature; there shall be taught a collection of heroic actions and songs of triumph.”
At the same time the bill required that the schools be divided into two sections, one for the girls and the other for the boys, and distributed in the proportion of one to each thousand inhabitants. The teachers, nominated by the people and confirmed by a jury of instruction, are to receive salaries as follows: men, twelve hundred francs; women, one thousand francs.
467. Pedagogical Methods.—Lakanal had given much thought to pedagogical methods. It is the interior of the school, not less than its exterior organization, that preoccupied his generous spirit. Like the most of his contemporaries, a partisan of Condillac’s doctrine, he believed that the idea could not reach the understanding except through the mediation of the senses. Consequently, he recommended the method which consists “in first appealing to the eyes of pupils, ... in creating the understanding through the senses, ... in developing morals out of the sensibility, just as understanding out of sensation.” This is an excellent method if we add to it a corrective, if we do not forget to excite the intelligence itself, and to make an appeal to the interior forces of the soul.
468. Elementary Books.—A few other quotations will suffice to prove with what acuteness of pedagogic sense Lakanal was endowed.[211] Very much interested in the composition of works for popular instruction, he sharply distinguished the elementary book, which brings knowledge within the reach of children, from the abridgment, which does no more than condense a long work. “The abridged,” he said, “is exactly opposed to the elementary.” No one has better comprehended than he the difficulty of writing a treatise on morals for the use of children:—
“It requires special genius. Simplicity in form and artless grace should there be mingled with accuracy of ideas; the art of reasoning ought never to be separated from that of interesting the imagination; such a work should be conceived by a profound logician and executed by a man of feeling. There should be found in it, so to speak, the analytical mind of Condillac and the soul of Fénelon.”
469. Geography.—Lakanal has defined with the same exactness the method to be followed in the teaching of geography. “First let there be shown,” he says, “in every school, the plan of the commune in which it is situated, and then let the children see a map of the canton of which the commune forms a part; then a map of the department, and then a map of France; after which will come the map of Europe and of other parts of the world, and lastly a map of the world.”[212]