In other terms, it is not proposed to repress the imagination, still less to destroy it; but merely to guide it gently, to associate it with reason and virtue, to awaken it to a taste for the good, and to an admiration for nature.
“Show him a beautiful sunset, in order that nothing which can enchant him may pass unnoticed.”
589. The Education of Women.—In her special studies on the education of women, Madame Necker, who in other parts of her work sometimes makes an improper use of vague declarations of principles, without entering sufficiently into the details of practical processes, has had the double merit of assigning to the destiny of women an elevated ideal, and of determining with precision the means of attaining it. She complains that we too often adhere to Rousseau’s programme, that of an education which relates exclusively to the conjugal duties of the woman. She recommends that the marriage of young girls be delayed, so that they may have time to become “enlightened spirits and intelligent creatures”; so that they may acquire, not “an assortment of all petty knowledges,” but a solid instruction, which prepares them for the duties of society and of maternity, which make of them the first teachers of their children, which, in a word, starts them on the way towards that personal perfection which they will never completely attain except by the efforts of their whole life.[250]
590. Madame Pape-Carpentier (1815-1878).—With Madame Pape-Carpentier, we leave the region of theories to enter the domain of facts; we have to do with a practical teacher. In 1846, after several trials at teaching at La Flèche, her native city, and at Mans, she published her Counsels on the Management of Infant Schools. In 1847 she founded at Paris a Mothers’ Normal School, which the next year, under the ministry of Carnot, became a public establishment, and which, in 1852, under the ministry of Fortoul, took the distinctive title Practical Courses on Infant Schools. It is there that during twenty-seven years Madame Pape-Carpentier applied her methods and trained a large number of pupils, more than fifteen hundred, who have propagated in France and abroad her teaching and her ideas. In 1847 she was removed from the management of her normal school through intrigues; but her loss of position was not of long duration. A little later she was appointed inspector-general of infant schools.
591. General Character of her Works.—Madame Pape-Carpentier may be considered as a pupil of Pestalozzi and of Frœbel. She was specially occupied with elementary education, and carried into her work a spirit of great simplicity. We must not demand of her ambitious generalities nor views on abstract metaphysics; but she excels in practical wisdom, and speaks the language of childhood to perfection.
592. Principal Works of Madame Pape-Carpentier.—Among the important works of Madame Pape-Carpentier we shall recommend the following in particular:—
1. Advice on the Management of Infant Schools (1845). In her preface the author excuses herself for undertaking “a subject of such gravity.” But she goes on to say that “no instruction has yet been given the teacher on the education of the poor child,” and she asks the privilege of speaking in the name of her personal experience. This book, often reprinted, has become Enseignement pratique dans les salles d’asile.[251]
2. Narratives and Lessons on Objects (1858). This is a collection of little stories, “simple as childhood,” which were tested before children before being written, and in which Madame Pape-Carpentier attempts to teach them things which are good: “I mean,” she says, “things really, seriously good.”
3. Pedagogical Discussions held at the Sorbonne (1867). During the Universal Exposition of 1867, Monsieur Duruy had assembled at Paris a certain number of teachers before whom pedagogical discussions were held. Madame Pape-Carpentier took upon herself the special task of explaining to them how the methods of the infant school might be introduced into the primary school.