FRENCH SCHOOLS AND PEDAGOGY-OLD AND NEW :-Contributions to the History, Organization, Instruction, and Discipline of Schools of differ ent Grades in France. Republished from The American Journal of Education. HENRY Barnard, LL.D., Ed. 640 pages. 1876. $3.50. CONTENTS. I-HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT-EARLIEST PERIOD TO 1780.... DRUIDS-GREEK COLONIES-IMPERIAL SCHOOLS-CHRISTIAN SCHOOLS..... IL-PEDAGOGICAL VIEWS-OLD AND NEW... PORT ROYALISTS AND THEIR SCHOOLS. ST. CYR-ARNAULD-PASCAL-NICOLE-TILLEMONT.... CHARLES ROLLIN, RECTOR OF THE UNIVERSITY OF PARIS.. 17-46 EDUCATION OF YOUTH-END AND MEANS-PUBLIC AND PRIVATE SCHOOLS.. 17 36 SUBJECTS AND METHODS IN SCHOOLS OF DIFFERENT GRADES..... 47-134 49 91 III.-LEGISLATION RESPECTING SCHOOLS FROM 1780 TO 1808. 205-218 TALLEYRAND-CONDORCET-DAUNOU-FOURCROY NATIONAL INSTITUTE-NORMAL SCHOOL-POLYTECHNIC SCHOOL... IV. THE UNIVERSITY OF FRANCE.. 1. ADMINISTRATIVE AUTHORITIES.... 205 212 219-368 219 5. STATISTICS-INTERNATIONAL CRITICISM.. 4. SUPERIOR INSTRUCTION..................................... FACULTIES-COLLEGE OF FRANCE-MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY.... V. SPECIAL INSTRUCTION IN SCIENCE AND THE ARTS.. 1. SUBJECTS AND METHODS PREPARATORY TO POLYTECHNIC SCHOOL....... 2. THE POLYTECHNIC SCHOOL-ORGANIZATION-STUDIES-METHODS... 3. SPECIAL SCHOOLS FOR PUBLIC SERVICE-ENGINEERING-MINING............. 4. SCHOOLS FOR MANUFACTURES AND TRADES...... 5. DESIGNING-LACE MAKING-WATCH MAKING-WEAVING.. 6. ARCHITECTURE-Painting-Drawing-MUSIC 7. COMMERCE-AGRICULTURE-NAVIGATION........ 8. LABORATORIES FOR ORIGINAL RESEARCH.. 9. SCHOOLS FOR MILITARY AND NAVAL SERVICE... VI-NORMAL SCHOOLS FOR PRIMARY SCHOOL TEACHERS. VIII.-SUPPLEMENTARY, PREVENTIVE, AND REFORMATORY SCHOOLS.. 647-656 337 337 341 347 369-608 JOHN FREDERICK OBERLIN. NATURE AND FIELD OF HIS LIFE WORK. JOHN FREDERICK OBERLIN, whose work as pastor of a poor secluded parish in one of the almost inaccessible cantons among the Vosges in the province of Alsace-called by the French the Ban de la Roche, from the Castle of La Roche around which the Ban or district extends, and by the Germans the Steinthal, or Stony Valley, from the rocky and sterile appearance of its surface-entitles him to the distinction of the MODEL POPULAR EDUCATOR AND SOCIAL REFORMER, was born in Strasbourg on the 31st of August, 1740, at that time the chief town of the province, and after 1792, the capital of the department of the Upper Rhine, to which Waldbach, the immediate residence of Oberlin for sixty-five years, belonged. Both the father, who was a respectable teacher, of German descent, and the mother, who was French, gave much personal attention to the education of their children, and particularly to the formation of their moral and industrial habits. In those directions young Frederick (as he seems to have been called) was early and preeminently distinguished. Various anecdotes are related of his self-denial in parting with all his savings, when a school-boy, in acts of charity. One day, observing that a poor market-woman was in great distress in consequence of two boys having rudely overturned her basket of eggs, he ran home for his 'small box of savings, and poured the whole contents into her lap. On another occasion, observing that a poor old woman was unable, for want of two sous, to buy an article of dress which she seemed desirous of possessing, he privately slipped two sous into the hand of the dealer, who forthwith made the woman happy in her purchase. Neither on this nor on any similar occasion did he stop to receive any tokens of gratitude. The delight he experienced in doing good, and what was pleasing in the sight of God, was the only reward at which he aimed. Besides this benevolence and piety of disposition, he entertained a horror of injustice, and possessed the courage to defend and succor the oppressed, at the risk of injury to his own person. For these and other excellent qualities, young Oberlin was greatly indebted to the considerate training of his parents; but particularly to the admonitions and guidance of his mother, a woman whose sole happiness lay in forming the minds and habits of her children. Lively in temperament, and reared amidst a military people, Oberlin inclined at first to the profession of a soldier; but from this he was dissuaded by his father, and willingly addicted himself to a course of study suitable for a more peaceful pursuit. French, his vernacular tongue, he learned to write with great force and elegance; and besides the German language, he acquired a proficiency in Latin and Greek, with a competent knowledge of general science, and various other accomplishments. Partly from the wishes of his parents, who were of the Reformed or Lutheran Church, and partly from his own inclinations, he resolved on devoting himself to the duties of a clergyman. For this purpose he attended a course of theological study at the university of Strasbourg, and in 1760 was ordained to the sacred ministry. Being still young, and possessing little experience of the world, Oberlin did not feel warranted in immediately assuming the pastoral office; for the space of seven years he devoted himself to private teaching, and for some time acted as tutor in the family of a distinguished surgeon, where he obtained that knowledge of medicine and surgery which proved so valuable to him in after life. While thus occupied he was offered the chaplainship of a regiment, and this he was about to accept, as likely to place him in a sphere of considerable usefulness, when a new field of operation was laid before him by his friend M. Stouber, who was curé, or pastor, in Waldbach, the principal village in the Ban de la Roche. The village was placed on the acclivity of the Haut Champ, an isolated group of mountains, rising 3,600 feet above the level of the sea, and separated by a deep longitudinal valley from the eastern side of the chain of Vosges. The whole canton contained between 8,000 and 9,000 acres, of which nearly one-half was covered with wood, 2,000 was occupied as pasture, and only 1,600 was under cultivation, producing rye, oats, and potatoes, which were consumed on the premises. The inhabitants were poor and ignorant, and without ambition to better their condition, at the time (1750) M. Stouber labored with them as the pastor of the Lutheran congregation. His first inquiry was for the school. He was shown a miserable hut, crowded with children, without books, and apparently having no instructor. 'Where is the master?' he asked. 'There he is,' said one of the pupils, pointing to an old man lying on a bed in the corner of the cottage. 'What do you teach the children, my good man?' asked Stouber. 'Nothing, sir.' 'Nothing!-How is that?' 'Because I know nothing myself,' answered the old man. 'Why, then, have you been appointed schoolmaster?' 'Why, you see, sir, I was the pig-keeper* of Waldbach for many years, and when I was too old and infirm for that employment, I was sent here to take care of the children.' Such was the chief educational establishment in the Ban de la Roche, and the others were little better, for they were schools kept by shepherds, and open only at certain seasons of the year. To remedy this lamentable state of affairs, Stouber set about the institution of proper schoolmasters; but this was attended with great difficulty; for so low had the profession of the teacher sunk in public estimation, that no one would undertake the office. He at length, by an ingenious device, proposed to abolish the name of schoolmaster, and institute that of régent in its stead; which was readily assented to, and Messieurs les régents were forthwith named. He then drew up a set of alphabet and spelling books for the use of the pupils; but never having seen such works before, the peasantry imagined they concealed some species of heresy or divination. That which chiefly puzzled and alarmed them were the rows of unconnected syllables, which meant no sort of language; and on this account they long opposed the introduction of the lessons. When they began to perceive that, by conquering the syllables, the children were able to read whole and connected words, their jealousy of the strange lesson-books gradually gave way; and finally, when they saw that the children could read any book fluently, they not only abandoned all opposition, but begged to be taught to read also. Under M. Stouber's intelligent and active pastorate, extending over ten years, various changes in the social and industrial condition of the district were begun; but the death of his wife, who was an active copartner in his plans of amelioration, made him feel inadequate to the further prosecution of this work, and he turned to Oberlin, as the man to continue and perfect his plans. On arriving in Strasbourg, M. Stouber hastened to call on his In this and other German villages the pigs, as well as the geese, and other domestic animals, are all kept together during the day, under a keeper, and driven home to their respective owners at young friend, whom he found in an humble lodging, which contained a small bed, with brown-paper curtains, and a little iron pan, with which Oberlin cooked his supper of brown bread, with a little water and a sprinkling of salt-the whole furniture being such as might be expected in the apartment of a student who preferred independence with narrowness of circumstances, to finery with dependence on others. Stouber observed at a glance that Oberlin was precisely the person he expected to find, and frankly communicated his wishes. Oberlin was charmed with the proposition. He would have declined accepting any rich and easy benefice. A parish in which all the inhabitants were poor and ignorant, was quite the thing he had been waiting for. His hour of usefulness had come. short time he was installed in the cure of the Ban de la Roche, and, like a primitive apostle setting out for the wilderness, went to assume the trust committed to his charge. In a Oberlin arrived at Waldbach, where he was to reside, on the 30th of May, 1767, being at the time in his twenty-seventh year. His parsonage-house was a plain building of two stories, standing on the face of a woody bank near the church, with a garden adjoining; and all around were lofty hills, partly covered with pines, with here and there pieces of pasture and patches of cultivated land. It was a wild rural scene, with a stillness only broken at intervals by the faint sound of the sheep or cow bells, swent by the breezes along the rugged sides of the mountains. PLAN OF OPERATIONS AS SOCIAL REFORMER. Oberlin's idea of the clerical character was not alone that of a minister of the gospel. Suiting himself to the necessities of his position, he perceived that it was his sacred duty to unite, in his own person, the character of religious pastor with that of secular instructor and adviser, physician, and husbandman. To an earnest inculcation of the doctrines and precepts of Christianity, he added the principles of philosophy, and the resources of a mind skilled in practical science. One of his earliest schemes required him to combine the functions of a civil engineer with those of a day-laborer. The account given of his enterprise on this occasion marks the sagacity of his mind and the humility of his disposition. Road and Bridge Building. Looking around on the general condition of the canton, he observed that one of its chief defects was the want of roads communicating with the lower and more improved parts of the country. |