The vast field which the organization of public instruction presents
to the imagination has, as may be, supposed, given birth to a great
number of systems more or less practicable; but, hitherto, it should
seem that political oscillations have imprinted on all the new
institutions a character of weakness which, if it did not absolutely
threaten speedy ruin, announced at least that they would not be
lasting. When the germs of discord prevailed, it was not likely that
men's minds should be in that tranquil state necessary for the
reestablishment of public seminaries, to lay the foundations of
which, in a solid and durable manner, required the calm of peace and
the forgetfulness of misfortune.
After the suppression of the colleges and universities existing under
the monarchy, and to which the _Collège de France_ in Paris is the
sole exception, the National Convention, by a decree of the 24th of
Nivôse, year III (14th of January 1795) established _Normal_ Schools
throughout the Republic. Professors and teachers were appointed to
them; and it was intended that, in these nurseries, youth should be
prepared for the higher schools, according to the new plan of
instruction. However, in less than a year, these _Normal_ Schools
were shut up; and, by a law of the 3d of Brumaire, year IV (25th of
October, 1796) Primary, Secondary, and Central Schools were ordered
to be established in every department.
In the Primary Schools, reading, writing, and arithmetic formed the
chief part of the instruction. Owing to various causes, the Secondary
Schools, I understand, were never established. In the Central
Schools, the internal regulation was to be as follows.
The whole of the instruction was divided into three classes or
sections. In the first, were taught drawing, natural history, and
ancient and modern languages. In the second, mathematics, physics,
and chymistry. In the third, universal grammar, the fine arts,
history, and legislation. Into the first class the pupils were to be
received at the age of twelve; into the second, at fourteen; and into
the third, at sixteen. In each Central School were to be a public
library, a botanic garden, and an apparatus of chymical and physical
instruments. The professors were to be examined and chosen by a _Jury
of Instruction_, and that choice confirmed by the administration of
the department.
The government, in turning its attention to the present state of the
public schools, and comparing them with the wants and wishes of the
inhabitants of the Republic, has found that the Primary Schools have
been greatly neglected, and that the Central Schools have not been of
so much utility as was expected. Alarmed at the consequences likely
to be produced by a state of things which leaves a great part of the
present generation destitute of the first rudiments of knowledge, the
government has felt that the reorganization of these schools is
become an urgent duty, and that it is impossible to delay longer to
carry it into execution.
The _Special_ Schools of Arts and Sciences are mostly confined to
Paris. The other rich and populous cities of the Republic have
undoubtedly a claim to similar institutions. There is at present no
School of Jurisprudence, and but one of Medicine.
The celebrated FOURCROY[1] has been some time engaged in drawing up a
plan for the improvement of public instruction. In seeking a new mode
of teaching appropriate to the present state of knowledge and to the
genius of the French nation, he has thought it necessary to depart
from the beaten track. Enlightened by the past, he has rejected the
ancient forms of the universities, whose philosophy and acquirements,
for half a century past, called for reformation, and no longer kept
pace with the progress of reason. In the Central Schools he saw
institutions few in number, and too uniformly organized for
departments varying in population, resources, and means. He has,
nevertheless, taken what was good in each of these two systems
successively adopted, and removed their abuses. Without losing sight
of the success due to good masters and skilful professors, he has,
above all, thought of the means of insuring the success of the new
schools by the competition of the scholars. He is of opinion that to
found literary and scientific institutions on a solid basis, it is
necessary to begin by attaching to them pupils, and filling the
classes with students, in order not to run the risk of filling them
with professors. Such is the object which FOURCROY wishes to attain,
by creating a number of national pensions, so considerable that their
funds, when distributed in the Lyceums, may be sufficient for their
support.
Agreeably to these ideas, the following is said to be the outline of
the new organization of public instruction. It is to be divided into
four classes; viz. Primary Schools, Secondary Schools, Lyceums, and
Special Schools.