The functions of the teacher, poorly rewarded, exposed to the risk of a very slender tuition, enjoyed no consideration.
“The teacher was often regarded in the community on the same footing as a mendicant, and between the herdsman and himself, the preference was for the herdsman.”
Consequently, the situation of school-master was the most often sought after by men who were infirm, crippled, unfit for any other kind of work.
“From the teacher without arms, to the epileptic, how many infirmities to pass through!”
612. Guizot and the Law of June 28, 1833.—Primary instruction, so often decreed by the Revolution, was not really organized in France till by the law of June 28, 1833, the honor of which is due in particular to Guizot, then minister of public instruction.[264]
Primary instruction was divided into two grades,—elementary and higher. Henceforth there was to be a school for each commune, or at least for each group of two or three communes. The State reserved the right of appointing teachers, and of determining their salary, which, it is true, in certain places, did not exceed two hundred francs. Poor children were to be received without pay.
613. Higher Primary Schools.—One of the most praiseworthy purposes of the legislator of 1833 was the establishment of higher primary instruction.
“Higher primary instruction,” he said, “necessarily includes, in addition to all the branches of elementary primary instruction, the elements of geometry, and its common applications, especially linear drawing and surveying, information on the physical sciences and natural history, applicable to the uses of life, singing, the elements of history and geography, and particularly of the history and geography of France. According to the needs and the resources of localities, the instruction shall receive such developments as shall be deemed proper.”
A higher primary school was to be established in the chief towns of the department and in all the communes which had a population of more than six thousand souls. The law was executed in part. In 1841, one hundred and sixty-one schools were founded. But little by little, the indifference of the government, and, above all, the vanity of parents who preferred for their children worthless Latin studies to a good and thorough primary instruction, discouraged these first efforts.
The legislator of 1833 had good reason for thinking that a good vest was worth more than a poor coat. His mistake was in thinking that people would be persuaded to abandon the coat in order to take the vest.[265] The higher schools were almost everywhere annexed to the colleges of secondary instruction. To suppress their independence and their own distinctive features was to destroy them. The final blow was given them by the law of 1850, which abstained from pronouncing their name, and which condemned them by its silence.