Hostname: page-component-5c6d5d7d68-wtssw Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-08-13T19:28:43.090Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Rustic Man: The Rural Schoolmaster in Nineteenth-Century France

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 June 2009

C. R. Day
C. R. Day
Affiliation:
Simon Fraser University
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Historians who have studied French primary education during the nineteenth century, Maurice Gontard, Jacques and Mona Ozouf, and Peter Meyer, have noted the great gains made by the instituteurs and their growing professional-ization from the time of the law of 1833 to the law of the 1880s. Improvements in the quality of teaching derived mainly from the introduction of a national system of normal schools (écoles normales primaires) by the Law on Primary Education of 1833. This article will discuss the history, programs, and organization of these schools and the origin and backgrounds of their students. It will also examine 280 essays written by schoolmasters in 1861 on the state of primary education in the towns and villages of France; these mémoires, written for the most part by graduates of the normal schools, provide first-hand insight into the teacher himself, his professional goals and sense of mission, and how he viewed the world around him in the middle of the last century.

Type
Effects of Education
Information
Comparative Studies in Society and History , Volume 25 , Issue 1 , January 1983 , pp. 26 - 49
Copyright
Copyright © Society for the Comparative Study of Society and History 1983

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Gontard, M., La question des écoles normales primaires de la révolution de 1789 à la loi de 1879 (Toulouse, 1962);Google ScholarOzouf, Jacques, Nous les maîtres d'école, autobiographies d'instituteurs de la Belle Epoque (Paris, 1967);Google ScholarOzouf, J. and Furet, Francois, Lire et écrire, l'alphabétisation des francais de Calvin àJules Ferry, 2 vols. (Paris, 1977);Google ScholarOzouf, Mona, L'école, l'église et la république 1871–1914 (Paris, 1963);Google ScholarProst, A., L'enseignement en France, 1800–1967 (Paris, 1968);Google ScholarMeyer, Peter, “Professionalization and Societal Change: Rural Teachers in Nineteenth- Century France,” Journal of Social History, 4 (Summer 1976), 542–58.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

2 “Quels sont les besoins de l'instruction primaire, dans une commune rurale, au triple point de vue de l'école, des élèves et du maître, concours ouvert entre les instituteurs publics par arrêté du 12 décembre 1860,” Journal général de l'instruction publique, 30 (1861), 615-26.Google Scholar

3 Rigault, G., Histoire générale de l'Institut des Frères des Ecoles Chrétiennes, 5 vols. (Paris, 1937–1953).Google Scholar

4 Barnard, H. C., Education and the French Revolution (Cambridge, 1969).Google Scholar

5 Gontard, , La question des écoles normales, 22–23.Google Scholar

6 Cuvier, Georges and Noël, , Rapport sur les établissements d'instruction publique en Hol-lande … (Paris, 1811);Google Scholar also the book of his brother, Cuvier, Frédéric, Projet d'organisation pour les écoles primaires (Paris, 1815).Google Scholar

7 Tronchot, Raymond, L'enseignement mutuel en Frdnce de 1815 à 1833, les luttes politiques et religieuses autour de la question scolaire, 3 vols. (Paris, 1973).Google Scholar

8 Day, C. R., “Freedom of Conscience and Protestant Education in France, 1815–1882” (Ph.D. diss., Harvard University, 1964), 1–79.Google Scholar

9 Guizot, F., Essai sur l'histoire et sur l'état actuel de l'instruction publique en France (Paris, 1816);Google ScholarMémoires pour servir à l'histoire de mon temps (Paris, 1860), III, 66–67;Google ScholarRendu, A., Essai sur l'instruction publique (Paris, 1819).Google Scholar

10 Jacoulet, E., “Ecoles normales,” Dictionnaire de pédagogic 3 vols. (Paris, 1887), II, 2060-62.Google Scholar

11 Archives Nationales (henceforth AN) F17 (L'Instruction Publique) 9560 à 9617, Ecoles normales primaires: affaires diverses An XIII à 1892 environ; 9628 à 9669, Inspection générate, 1836–88; 9670 à 9684, Rapports des directeurs; 9686 à 9691, Dossiers personnels, tableau du personnel, etc.; 9698 à 9742, Elèves, discipline, rapports des directeurs et des inspecteurs. On women, AN F17/9582, 9607, 9614, 9662, 9684–88, 9710, 9725, 9748–58.

12 Rendu, A., Considérations sur les écoles normales en France (Paris, 1838).Google Scholar AN F17/9600, Extrait du registre des délibérations de la commission de surveillance, pres l'école normale primaire de Villefranche, 8 October 1838.

13 By 1870, about 26,000 teachers were graduates of normal schools. Ministère de l'lnstruc-tion Publique, Statistique comparée de l'enseignement primaire 1829–1877 (Paris, 1880), 174–77, Table XLVI.Google Scholar See also Gontard, M., La question des 7eacute;coles normales, 42–44.Google Scholar

14 Ministère Secrétaire d'état au Département de l'lnstruction Publique, Rapport au Roi sur la situation de l'instruction primaire en France (Paris, 1841), 6–14.Google Scholar

15 AN F17/U578–80, Réprimandes, affaires disciplinaires, 1848–51.

16 Anderson, R. D., Education in France, 1848–1870 (Oxford, 1975), 47.Google Scholar

17 AN F17/9742, Réglement intérieur de l'éecole normale primaire de Versailles, 25 March 1851.

18 AN F17/3160, Statistique de l'instruction primaire sous le Ministère Duruy, 1863–1869, no. 6. In 1863, the normal schools presented 973 students for certification examinations: 128 obtained the brevet complet (supérieur), 427 the brevet simple, 300 the ordinary certificate plus some electives toward the higher certificate, while 118 failed to pass the exam.

19 Day, C. R., “Technical and Professional Education in France: The Rise and Fall of L'En-seignement Secondaire Spécial, 1865–1902,” Journal of Social History, 6 (Winter 1972–1973), 177–201;CrossRefGoogle Scholaridem, “Social Advancement and the Primary School Teacher: The Making of Normal School Directors in France, 1815–1880,” Sociol History/Histoire Sociale, 1 (05 1974), 87–102;Google Scholaridem, “Education, Technology, and Social Change in France: The Short, Unhappy Life of the Cluny School, 1866–1891,” French Historical Studies, 8 (Spring 1974), 427–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

20 Day, C. R., “The Making of Mechanical Engineers in France: The Ecoles d'Arts et Métiers, 1803–1914,” French Historical Studies, 10 (Spring 1978), 439–60;CrossRefGoogle Scholaridem, “Making Men and Training Technicians: Boarding Schools of the Ecoles d'Arts et Metiers during the Nineteenth Century,” in The Making of Frenchmen: Current Directions in the History of Education in France, 1679–1979, Baker, Donald N. and Harrigan, Patrick, eds. (Waterloo, Ontario, 1980), 381–96.Google Scholar

21 AN F17/9590, Letter from Lartigue, M., négociant, to Minister of Public Education, 6 July 1849.Google Scholar

22 AN F17/9632–35, Inspection générale, 1837. See also David, J. P., L'étabtissement de l'enseignement primaire au XlXe sièle dans le département du Maine et Loire, 1816–1879 (Angers, 1967), 383.Google Scholar

23 AN F17/20573 (dossier personnel, Pierre Demongeot), Prefect of the Doubs to Minister of Public Education, 8 February 1864.

24 AN F17/9598, Rector Academy Puy de Dôme to Minister, 19 October 1844; AN F17/9632, Inspector's report, Var, 1837.

25 AN F17/1456, Director to Minister, 9 December 1868.

26 AN F17/9582, Director's reports, 1838–1851.

27 AN F17/9600, Report Director Colmar (Haut-Rhin), 1844; AN F17/9632, Inspection gén-érate, 1837, reports from Metz and Strasbourg.

28 AN FI7/9586, Annual director's reports, 15 June 1840 to 1847.

29 AN F17/9608, Inspection générale, 1872.

30 AN F17/9636, Report of 12 November 1839. The director, Boulanger, was himself the son of a small farmer.

31 AN F17/9720, Director Besançon to Academy Inspector, 20 January 1866.

32 AN F17/9582, School inspector (Nièvre) to Minister, 28 October 1840.

33 AN F17/9598, engagement décennal, 1834–43; and AN F17/9565, engagement décennal, 1860s.

34 Ibid. However, the government had difficulty collecting its tuition fees from those who had left the profession because of the poverty of the graduates and their families.

35 AN F17/9632, Inspection générate, 1837.

36 AN F17/9565, Toulouse, 1861–71; 9589–91, Inspections, 1839–44; 9596–98, L'engage-ment décennal, 1834–43; 9607, Moulins, 1863–72; 9650, Auxerre, 1843–44; 9660, Montbéliard, 1830s–60s; 9598, Clermont, 1833–43.

37 Among those in industry, there were two engine drivers for railroad companies, two industrialists, two businessmen, one notary, and one salesman. Eleven became soldiers, two farmers, three emigrated to the United States, and four were clergymen. Most went into public service. AN F17/9725, Prefect of the Hautes-Alpes to Minister, 18 November 1878.

38 AN F17/10287, Prefect of the Doubs to Minister of Education, 24 October 1844.

39 AN F17/21434 (dossier personnel, J. L. Paris), Inspector's report, 14 August 1866. Chau-mont had seven advanced, five ordinary; Auxerre four advanced, eleven ordinary, one failure; Varzy, zero, ten, and two; Troyes, two, six, and four failures.

40 AN F17/9632, Inspection of 1837. See also Lemoine, René, La loi Guizot, son application dans le départemenl de la Somme (Abbeville, 1933), 218.Google Scholar In the Ardèche in southern France, only 18 percent (54 of 295 graduates) left teaching during the years 1833 to 1850. Reynier, Elie and Abrial, Louise, Les écoles normales primaires de l'Ardèche (Privas, 1945), 54.Google Scholar

41 AN F17/8741 (Cluny series), Joseph Guillaume Arnoux, 15 May 1868.

42 Prost, , L'enseignement, 132–42.Google Scholar

43 Robert, Charles, Plaintes et voeux présentés par les instituteurs publics en 1861 sur la situation des maisons d'école, du mobilier et du matériel (Paris, 1864).Google Scholar See also note 2 above.

44 Gontard, , Les écoles primaires de la France bourgeoise (1833–1875), (Toulouse [n.d.], 1964), 151.Google Scholar

45 Ibid.; also Prost, , L'enseignement, 141;Google Scholar and Anderson, , Education in France, 153.Google Scholar

46 AN F17/10758, Academy of Aix-en-Provence; 10761, Besançon; 10776–78, Douai; 10781, Montpellier; 10784, Nancy; 10791, Poitiers; 10794, Strasbourg.

47 Prost, , L'enseignement, 140.Google Scholar

48 AN F17/10776, Nord, Jean-François Coulier.

49 AN F17/10794, Vienne, Jean Compagnan.

50 AN F17/10778, Somme, T. P. Bondais.

51 AN F17/10794, Deux-Sèvres, Jacques Vincelot.

52 AN F17/10794, Bas-Rhin, Antoine Kim.

53 AN F17/10776, Nord, N. A. E. Normand.

54 Chauvin, Léon, Mémoires d'un instituteur (Paris, [1896?]), 60–62,Google Scholar written under the pseudonym Noël Vauclin.

55 AN F17/20573 (dossier personnel, Pierre Demongeot), Prefect of the Doubs to Minister of Public Education, 8 February 1864.

56 AN F17/9823, Inspector's report, 1837–38, Academy of Metz.

57 AN F17/10791, Vienne, P. C. Vincent.

58 AN F17/10781, Gard, Etienne Brouet.

59 AN F17/10776, Nord, Emile A. Dupont. See also AN F17/10791, Vienne, Alexis Texier, and F/10794, Haut-Rhin, J. G. Obrecht.

60 AN F17/10781, Aude, Francois Pelouse.

61 AN F17/10794, Bas-Rhin, Jean-Jacques Sprecht.

62 AN F17/10794, Haut-Rhin, S. W. Stoltz.

63 AN F17/10791, Vienne, A. Texier.

64 Meyer, , “Professionalization,” 542–58.Google Scholar

65 AN F17/10776, Nord, Jean François Défontaine.

65 AN F17/10791, Deux-Sèvres, Eugène Gallas.

67 Lorain, P., Tableau de l'instruction primaire en France (Paris, 1837).Google Scholar

68 AN F17/10776, Nord, Charles Brulin.

69 AN F17/10776, Nord, Jules-Alexandre Willerval.

70 Yet in the northeastern academies only 12 wanted free instruction and 10 improvements in female education. In the Academies of Douai and Somme, 22 favored compulsory instruction, 20 free, and 22 female. In Aix-en-Provence and Montpellier, 24 compulsory, 20 free, 12 female; and finally, in Poitiers, 22, 16, and 2. There were 66 of 118 who saw compulsory instruction as a solution to the problem of child labor; 32 of 68 had similar views on free instruction, and 20 of 66 on nursery and evening schools.

71 AN F17/10776, Nord, E. L. Jacques, and F17/10781, Var, P. Peyron.

72 AN F17/10784, Moselle, Louis Schneider.

73 AN F17/10776, Nord, Nicolas Richard.

74 AN F17/10781, Gard, Marius Barbié, and F17/10791, Deux-Sèvres, Pierre Barot.

75 AN F17/10781, Gard, Louis Roger.

76 AN F17/10776, Nord, P. J. Méresse and P. J. Pidoux. AN F17/10794, Bas-Rhin, Louis Huck; Haut-Rhin, François-Antoine Moritz.

77 Person, Léonce, Jean-Baptiste Edouard Person, instituteur primaire … directeur des écoles normales d'Albi (Tarn) et de Chartres (Eure-et-Loir) 1805–1877 (Paris, 1884), 64–65, 96–98.Google Scholar

78 AN F17/10794, Haut-Rhin, Jean-Georges Obrecht, and F17/10761, Doubs, Jacques Duras.

79 AN F17/10776, Nord, Théophile Gir.

80 AN F17/10791, Vienne, Jean Compagnan.

81 AN F17/10791, Vendée, Henri-Claude Tulleau.

82 AN F17/10776, Nord, T. Gir. See also F17/10781, Gard, François Tarrou.

83 AN F17/10781, Var, P. Peyron.

84 AN F17/10784, Moselle, L. Schneider.

85 AN F17/10794, Bas-Rhin, Francois-Antoine Sieffert. Also F17/10781, Aude, Jean Gradit.

86 AN F17/10794, Bas-Rhin, F. A. Sieffert.

87 AN F17/10776, Nord, J. F. Défontaine.

88 AN F17/10791, Vendée, H. C. Tulleau.

89 AN F17/10794, Bas-Rhin, G. Münch.

90 AN F17/10784, Moselle, Nicolas Simon.

91 AN F17/10791, Haute-Vienne, Michel Duprat.

92 AN F17/10781, Lozère, Jean-Jacques Buisson.

93 AN F17/10791, Vienne, A. Texier.

94 AN F17/10781, Gard, César Martial.

95 Weisz, George, “The Politics of Medical Professionalization in France, 1845–1848,” Journal of Social History, 12 (Fall 1978), 3.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

96 Pitts, Jesse, “Continuity and Change in Bourgeois France,” in Hoffmann, Stanley et al. In Search of France (New York, 1963), 235–304;CrossRefGoogle ScholarCrozier, Michel, The Bureaucratic Phenomenon (Chicago, 1964);Google ScholarWylie, Lawrence, Village in the Vaucluse (Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1957).Google Scholar

97 Weber, Eugen, Peasants into Frenchmen, The Modernization of Rural France 1870–1914 (Stanford, 1976), 304–16.Google Scholar

98 Binkley, Robert, Realism and Nationalism, Europe from 1852 to 1871 (New York, 1935).Google Scholar