France -- Civilization; France -- Politics and government; France -- Social life and customs -- 19th century
all vacancies, however great they may be, and fill them with products of
superior and authentic quality. These human products thus manufactured
by the State in its own shop, these school instruments which the State
stamps with its own mark, the State naturally prefers. It imposes them
on its various branches; it puts them by order into its lycées and
colleges; at last, it accepts no others; not only does it confer on
itself the monopoly of teaching, but again the preparation of the
masters who teach. In 1813,[6149] a circular announces that "the number
of places that chance to fall vacant from year to year, in the various
University establishments, sensibly diminishes according as the
organization of the teaching body becomes more complete and regular in
its operation, as order and discipline are established, and as education
becomes graduated and proportionate to diverse localities. The moment
has thus arrived for declaring that the Normal School is henceforth the
only road by which to enter upon the career of public instruction; it
will suffice for all the needs of the service."
VI. Objects and sentiments.
Object of the educational corps and adaptation of youth to
the established order of things.--Sentiments required of
children and adults.--Passive acceptance of these rules.
--Extent and details of school regulations.--Emulation and the
desire to be at the head.--Constant competition and annual
distribution of prizes.
What is the object of this service?--Previous to the Revolution, when
directed by, or under the supervision of, the Church, its great object
was the maintenance and strengthening of the faith of the young.
Successor of the old kings, the new ruler underlines[6150] among "the
bases of education," "the precepts of the Catholic religion," and this
phrase he writes himself with a marked intention; when first drawn
up, the Council of State had written the Christian religion; Napoleon
himself, in the definitive and public decree, substitutes the narrowest
term for the broadest.[6151] In this particular, he is politic, taking
one step more on the road on which he has entered through the Concordat,
desiring to conciliate Rome and the French clergy by seeming to give
religion the highest place.--But it is only a place for show, similar to
that which he assigns to ecclesiastical dignitaries in public ceremonies
and on the roll of precedence. He does not concern himself with
reanimating or even preserving earnest belief: far from that:
"it should be so arranged," he says,[6152] "that young people may be
neither too bigoted nor too incredulous: they should be adapted to the
state of the nation and of society."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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