The History of Pedagogy

by Gabriel Compayré

Finally, let us note the third collection, the Historical and Instructive Letters addressed to the Ladies of Saint Cyr.[147]

It is to be regretted that, out of these numerous volumes, where repetitions abound, there have not been extracted, in a methodical manner, a few hundred pages which should contain the substance of Madame de Maintenon’s thinking on educational questions.

237. Interior Organization.—The purpose of the founding of Saint Cyr was to assure to the two hundred and fifty daughters of the poor nobility, and to the children of officers dead or disabled, an educational retreat where they would be suitably educated so as to be prepared for becoming either nuns, if this was their vocation, or, the more often, good mothers. As M. Gréard has justly observed, “the very conception of an establishment of this kind, the idea of making France pay the debt of France, educating the children of those who had given her their blood, proceeds from a feeling up to that time unknown.”[148]

Consequently, children of the tenderest years, from six or seven, were received at Saint Cyr, there to be cared for till the age of marriage, till eighteen and twenty.

The young girls were divided into four classes,—the reds, the greens, the yellows, and the blues. The blues were the largest, and they wore the royal colors. Each class was divided into five or six bands or families, of eight or ten pupils each.

The ladies of Saint Cyr were ordinarily taken from the pupils of the school. They were forty in number,—the superior, the assistant who supplied the place of the superior, the mistress of the novices, the general mistress of the classes, the mistresses of the classes, etc.

The capital defect of Saint Cyr is, that, as in the colleges of the Jesuits, the residence is absolute and the sequestration complete. From her fifth to her twentieth year the young girl belongs entirely to Saint Cyr. She scarcely knows her parents. It will be said, perhaps, that in many cases she has lost them, and that in some cases she could expect only bad examples from them. But no matter; the general rule, which interrupted family intercourse to the extent of almost abolishing it, cannot obtain our approbation. The girl was permitted to see her parents only three or four times a year, and even then these interviews would last only for a half an hour each time, and in the presence of a mistress. There was permission to write family letters from time to time; but as though she mistrusted the natural impulses of the heart, and the free outpouring of filial affection, Madame de Maintenon had taken care to compose some models of these letters. With more of reason than of feeling, Madame de Maintenon is not exempt from a certain coldness of heart. It seems that she would impose on her pupils the extraordinary habits of her own family. She recollected having been kissed only twice by her mother, on her forehead, and then only after a long separation.

238. Distrust of Reading.—After the reforms of 1692, the instruction at Saint Cyr became a matter of secondary importance. Reading, writing, and counting were taught, but scarcely anything besides. Reading, in general, was viewed with distrust: “Teach girls to be very sparing as to reading, and always to prefer manual labor instead.” Books of a secular nature were interdicted; only works of piety were put in the hands of pupils, such as the Introduction to a Devout Life, by Saint François de Salles, and the Confessions of Saint Augustine. “Renounce intellectual culture” is the perpetual injunction of Madame de Maintenon.

“We must educate citizens for citizenship. It is not the question of giving them intellectual culture. We must preach family duties to them, obedience to husband, and care for children.... Reading does more harm than good to young girls.... Books make witlings and excite an insatiable curiosity.”

239. The Study of History Neglected.—To judge of the spirit of Saint Cyr, from the point of view of intellectual education, it suffices to note the little importance that was there given to history. This went so far as to raise the question whether it were not best to prohibit the study of French history entirely. Madame de Maintenon consents to have it taught, but only just enough so that “pupils may not confuse the succession of our kings with the princes of other countries, and not take a Roman emperor for an emperor of China or Japan, a king of Spain or of England for a king of Persia or of Siam.” As to the history of antiquity, it must be held in mistrust for the very reason—who would believe it?—of the beautiful examples of virtue that it contains. “I should fear that those grand examples of generosity and heroism would give our young girls too much elevation of spirit, and make them vain and pretentious.” Have we not some right to feel surprised that Madame de Maintenon is alarmed at the thought of raising the intelligence of woman? It is true that she doubtless thought of the romantic exaggerations produced by the reading of the Cyrus the Great and other writings of Mlle. de Scudéry. Let us add, besides, to excuse the shortcomings of the programme of Saint Cyr in the matter of history, that even for boys in the colleges of the University, the order that introduced the teaching of history into the classes dates only from 1695.