1. Education for the people? Dr Chris Pearson

2. Lecture themes The attempts to expand educational provision during the nineteenth century The close relationship between politics and education Schools as a battleground in the struggle between Republicans and the clergy The social impact of education

3. ‘It was in this period that the solution to practically every problem was widely believed to lie in the spread of education. Schools came to be considered indispensable amenities, which every state must provide for all its citizens… Education seemed to hold the key to social prestige, wealth, wisdom, and, some even claimed, happiness.’ Theodore Zeldin, France 1848-1945, vol. II, p.139

4. Baron Dupin in Forces productives et commerciales de la France (1823) The value of schools lay in their role of ‘inspiring amongst the young love of our laws, respect and devotion for our princes, the need for public order, the sage habits of deference towards the magistrates.’ Quoted in Price, Social History, p, 308

5. Lecture outline State education laws (1833, 1850, 1880s) Education in the Third Republic The teaching profession

6. Schooling before 1833 Before 1833, education patchy and in private and religious hands 50% literacy rate in the 1790s (Magraw, p. 196) Revolutionary regimes failed to create a nationwide, secular, free, and obligatory network of schools Napoleon and Restoration introduce minor reforms 1817: 17,000 schools, 1820: 24,000 schools but 1/3 of villages without a school.

7. Guizot Law (1833) Turning point in educational provision Boys primary school in every commune Ecole normale in every département to train teachers Brevet de capacité (teaching certificate) for all teachers Financial assistance for poorest students Ecoles primaires supérieures (“higher” primary schools) founded to train clerks and foremen

8. Impact of the Guizot law School attendance increased from 1.9 million in 1833 to 3.5 million in 1848 Encouraged some social mobility But: attendance voluntary Not all communes able to establish their own school Girls excluded

9. Guizot’s 1833 letter to teachers: ‘Each family requires you to give it back a decent man and the country a good citizen. The sentiments you must develop are faith in Providence, the sanctity of duty, submission to paternal authority, respect due to the law, the king, and the rights of others.’

10. Educational reform during the Second Empire Carnot’s radical proposals for free, secular and republican education… …rejected by Party of Order when it comes to power in May 1849 Comte de Falloux launches education commission led by Adolphe Thiers

11. ‘Today when violent communism threatens society, it is essential that education calls the religious sentiment to its aid in a common war, to repulse the Barbarians.’ Adolphe Thiers

12. The aim of education ‘The principal duty of the teacher is to give a religious education to the children, and to inscribe on their souls the sentiment of their duties towards God.’ 1851 implementing regulations of the Falloux law

13. Falloux law (1850) Allowed Catholic teachers to teach without a brevet “Subversive” subjects dropped from teacher training colleges Purge of teachers with republican sentiments (4,000 forced from profession from 1848 to 1859) Expansion of Catholic schools and teachers taught by nuns Girls schools to be established in communes of over 800 inhabitants

14. The (alleged) power of Jesuit education: ‘Under the Second Empire… they have made enormous progress in our country, and have particularly sought to take control of the education of our youth, in order to destroy the principles which our society is built on and to mould the new generations in the ideas of clericalism.’ Larousse encyclopaedia (1887)

15. Republican reaction to “Christianization” of schools Jules Ferry Law of 16 June 1881: education free in public primary schools and teachers must possess brevet Jules Ferry Law of 28 March 1882: education compulsory and secular State training colleges for female teachers

16. Impact of Ferry’s Laws Schoolhouse became a secular, republican space within the village Literacy rates increased to 90% by 1900 and school attendance rose to 95% (although some child labour continued)

21. The teaching profession Until 1833, poorly trained, low-status, unattractive profession The creation of écoles normales in 1833 improved training 1833 – better education and (some) improvement in pay but many teachers still had to supplement their income Male teachers paid more than female teachers

22. Newspaper summary of life as a teacher (1860) ‘Constantly at the mercy of an inspector’s report, or a denunciation, transferred frequently and on the least pretext, the insituteurs in the countryside had reached such a degree of moral wretchedness that every one among them who felt he had any good in him was emigrating to the civil service, the railways or private industry.’

23. In the words of one teacher: ‘It is not a question of wanting a high salary, or of becoming affluent, but rather of a decent life in harmony with the teacher’s mission.’ Quoted in Day, ‘The Rustic Man: The Rural Schoolmaster in Nineteenth Century France,’ Comparative Studies in Society and History 25/1 (1983)

24. Expansion of the teaching profession 59,735 teachers in 1837 108,799 teachers in 1863 158,000 teachers in 1911-12 Source: Price, Social History, p.323

25. Teachers: repressive enforcers of the social order? ‘The main role of the teacher was to impose the culture and ethics of the dominant social group upon children, basing their teaching on the ideals of self-discipline, honesty, thrift, the avoidance of vice, respect for the family, hard work, cleanliness, politeness and grateful acceptance of the established social order.’ Roger Price, Social History, p. 330

26. Or were teachers more rebellious? Sharif Gemie finds evidence of: Chatter Passing round illicit notes and poems Close friendships (lesbianism?) Relationships with men (including, in one case, a priest) ‘Docility, Zeal and Rebellion,’ European History Quarterly 24 (1994), 213-44

27. The Age of Education The number of schools increased from 31,000 in 1833, 68,000 in 1863, and 80,000 in 1887 The number of pupils also expanded – 1.35 million in 1833 to 5.5 million in 1887 Their was also a more even gender balance – boys represented 70% of pupils in 1830, and 50% in the 1890s.

28. Limits to the “Age of Education” Secondary education (collèges and lycées) remained elitist University education increased from 11,200 in students in 1876 to 42,000 in 1914, but largely remained the preserve of the elite Gender: schooling for girls stressed domesticity