395. Aristocratic Prejudices. ВЂ” That which we would

expunge from the book of La Chalotais is his opinion on pri-

mary instruction. Blinded by some unexplained distrust of

the people, and dominated by aristocratic tendencies, he com-

plains of the extension of instruction. He demands that the

knowledge of the poor do not extend beyond their pursuits.

He bitterlj- criticises the thirst for knowledge which is begin-

ning to pervade the lower classes of the nation.

" Even the people can study. Laborers and artisans send

their children to the colleges of the smaller cities. . . . When

these children have accomplished a summary course of study

which has taught them only to disdain the occupation of their

father, they rush into the cloisters and become ecclesiastics ;

or they exercise judicial functions, and often become subjects

harmful to society. The Brethren of the Christian Doctrine

(sic), who are called ignorantins, have just appeared to com-

plete the general ruin ; they teach people to read and write

who ought to learn only to draw, and to handle the plane and

the file, but have no disposition to do it. They are the rivals

or the successors of the Jesuits."

A singular force of prejudice was necessary to conceive that

354 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

the Brethren of the Christian Schools were instructing the

people too highly.

Let it be said, however, towards exonerating LaChalotais,

that he perhaps does not so much attack the instruction in

itself, as the bad way in which it is given. What he censures

is instruction that is badly conceived, that which takes people

from their own class. In some other passages of his book

we see that he would be disposed to disseminate the new

education among the ranks of the people.

"It is the State, it is the larger part of the nation, that

must be kept principally in view in education ; for twenty

millions of men ought to be held in greater consideration

than one million, and the peasantry , ivho are not yet a class in

France, as they are in Sweden, ought not to be neglected in a

system of instruction. Education is equally solicitous that

letters should be cultivated, and that the fields should be

plowed ; that all the sciences and the useful arts should be

perfected ; that justice should be administered and that relig-

ion should be taught ; that there should be instructed and

competent generals, magistrates, and ecclesiastics, and skill-

ful artists and citizens, all in fit proportion. It is for the

government to make each citizen so pleased with his condi-

tion that he may not be forced to withdraw from it."

Let us quote one sentence more, which is almost the for-

mula that to-day is so dear to the friends of instruction : —

" We do not fear to assert, in general, that in the condi-

tion in which Europe now is, the people that are the most

enlightened will always have the advantage over those who

are the less so."

396. General Conclusion. — Notwithstanding the faults

which mar it, the work of La Chalotais is none the less one of

the most remarkable essays of the earlier French pedagogy.

" La Chalotais," says Gr6ard, "belongs to the school of

ORIGIN OF LAY AND NATIONAL INSTRUCTION. 355

Rousseau ; but on more than one point he departs from the

plan traced by the master. He escapes from the allurements

of the paradox. Relatively he has the spirit of moderation.

He is a classic without prejudices, an innovator without

temerity."

His book is pre-eminently a book of polemics, written with

the ardor of one who is engaged in a fight, and overflowing

with a generous passion. What noble words are the fol-

lowing : —

"Let the young man learn what bread a ploughman, a

day laborer, or an artisan eats. He will see in the sequel

how they are deprived of the bread which they earn with so

much difficulty, and how one portion of men live at the ex-

pense of the other."

In these lines, which breathe a sentiment of profound pity

for the disinherited of this world, we already hear, as it were,

the signal cry announcing the social reclamations of the

French Revolution.

379. Rolland (1734-1794). — La Chalotais, after hav-

ing criticised the old methods, proposed new ones ; Rolland

attempted to put them in practice. La Chalotais is a polemic

and a theorist ; Rolland is an administrator. President of the

Parliament of Paris, he presented to his colleagues, in 1768,

a Report which is a real system of education. 1 But above

all, he gave his personal attention to the administration of

the College Louis-le-Grand. An ardent and impassioned

adversary of the Jesuits, he used every means to put public

instruction in a condition to do without them. " Noble and

wise spirit, patient and courageous reason, who, for twenty

years, even during exile and after the dissolution of his

society, did not abandon for a single moment the work he

1 See the Rccucil of the works of President Rolland, printed in 1783, by

order of the executive committee of the College Louis-le-Grand.

356 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

had undertaken, but brought it, almost perfected, to the

very confines of the Revolution ; a heart divested of every

ambition, who, chosen by popular wish, and by the cabinet

of the king, as director of public instruction, obstinately

entrenched himself in the peace of his studious retreat." This

is the judgment of a member of the University, in the nine-

teenth century, Dubois, director of the Normal School.

No doubt Holland is not an original educator. "It is in

Eollin's Traite des etudes" he says, " that every teacher will

find the true rules for education." Besides, he borrowed

ideas from La Chalotais, and also from the Memoires which

the University of Paris drew up in 1763 and 1764 at the

request of Parliament ; so that the interest in his work is

less, perhaps, in its personal views than in the indications

it furnishes relative to the situation of the University and

its tendency towards self-reformation.

398. Instruction within the Reach of All. — At least

on one point Rolland is superior to La Chalotais ; he takes a

bold stand for the necessity of primary instruction, and for

the progress and diffusion of human knowledge.

" Education cannot be too widely diffused, to the end that

there may be no class of citizens who may not be brought to

participate in its benefits. It is expedient that each citizen

receive the education which is adapted to his needs." 1

It is true that Rolland joins in the wish expressed by the

University, which demanded a reduction in the number of

colleges. But only colleges for the higher studies were in

question, and Rolland thought less of restricting instruction

than of proportioning and adapting it to the needs of the

different classes of society.

"Each one ought to have the opportunity to receive the

education which is adapted to his needs. . . . Now each

1 Recueil, etc., p. 25.

ORIGIN OF LAY AND NATIONAL INSTRUCTION. 357

soil," adds Holland, " is not susceptible of the same culture

and the same product. Each mind does not demand the

same degree of culture. All men have neither the same

needs nor the same talents ; and it is in proportion to these

talents and these needs that public education ought to be

regulated."

Rolland shared the prejudices of La Chalotais against "the

new Order founded by La Salle " ; but none the less on this

account did he demand instruction for all.

" The knowledge of reading and writing, which is the key

to all the other sciences, ought to be universally diffused.

Without this the teachings of the clergy are useless, for the

memory is rarely faithful enough ; and reading alone can

impress in a durable manner what it is important never to

forget." Would it be granted by every one to-day, affected

by prejudices that are ever re-appearing, that " the laborer

who has received some sort of instruction is but the more

diligent and the more skillful by reason of it " ?

399. The Normal School. — We shall not dwell upon

the methods and schemes of study proposed by Rolland.

Save verv urgent recommendations relative to the studv of

the national history and of the French language, we shall

find nothing very new in them. What deserve to be pointed

out, by way of compensation, are the important innovations

which he wished to introduce into the general organization

of public instruction.

First there was the idea of a higher normal school, of a

seminary for professors. The 1 University had already

expressed the wish that such an establishment should be

founded. To be convinced how much this pedagogical sem-

inary, conceived as far back as L763, resembled our actual

Normal School, it suffices to note the following details. The

establishment was to be governed by professors drawn from

358 THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY.

the different faculties, according to the different subjects of

instruction. The young men received on competitive exam-

ination were to be divided into three classes, corresponding

to the three grades of admission. "Within the establishment

they were to take part in a series of discussions, after a

given time to submit to the tests for graduation, and finally

to be placed in the colleges. Is it not true that there was

no important addition to be made to this scheme ? Holland

also required that pedagogics have a place among the studies

of these future professors, and that definite and systematic

instruction be given in this art, so important to the teachers

of youth.

Holland does not stop even there. He provides for

inspectors, or visitors, who are to examine all the colleges

each year. Finally, he subjects all scholastic establishments

to one single authority, to a council of the government, to

which he applies the rather odd title, the " Bureau of Corre-

spondence."

400. Spirit op Centralization. — Whatever opinion

may be formed of absolute centralization, which, in our cen-

tury, has become the law of public instruction, and has

caused the disappearance of provincial franchises, it is certain

that the parliamentarians of the eighteenth century were the

first to conceive it and desire it, if not to realize it. Paris, in

Rolland's plan, becomes the centre of public instruction.

The universities distributed through the provinces are co-or-

dinated and made dependent on that of Paris.

"Is it not desirable," said Rolland, " that the good taste

which everything concurs to produce in the capital, be dif-

fused to the very extremities of the kingdom ; that every

Frenchman participate in the treasures of knowledge which

are there accumulating from day to day ; that the young men

who have the same country, who are destined to serve the same

ORIGIN OF LAY AND NATIONAL INSTRUCTION. 359

prince and to fulfill the same functions, receive the same les-

sons and be imbued with the same maxims ; that one part of

France be not under the clouds of ignorance while letters

shed the purest light in another ; in a word, that the time

come when a young man educated in a province cannot be

distinguished from one who has been trained in the cap-