Papurau Newydd Cymru

Chwiliwch 15 miliwn o erthyglau papurau newydd Cymru

Cuddio Rhestr Erthyglau

7 erthygl ar y dudalen hon

STATE EDUCATION IN FRANCE.

Newyddion
Dyfynnu
Rhannu

STATE EDUCATION IN FRANCE. THE French are setting about the business of state educa- tion in good earnest. The valour with which the minister of public instruction proposes to grapple with the difficulties of the question, and the facility with which he cuts the Gordian-knot, will be highly pleasing to the friends of Go- vernment education in England and Wales. It would not be, at all surprising if Kay Shuttleworth and Co. would order a day of general thanksgiving for indications so hope- ful. The French have propounded the true theory. Our Minutes of Council, and the soft twaddle with which we are treated in regard to secular education, belie the principle of State education.. The project of law relative to primary instruction was laid c before the'Assembly by M. Carnot on Friday last. Accord- ing to this plan, education to a certain limit is declared com- pulsory. If the parent cannot, or will not, educate the child the State will do it. Gratuitous education to a cor- 1 tain limit is offered by the State to all without distinction. A parent who will neither provide education for his child, nOr avail himself of the gratuitous instruction offered by the State, is guilty of an offence punishable by fine and suspen- sion of civil rights. That portion of instruction called pri- 0 9 mary, and which it is declared in this project necessary to impart to all French children as the indispensable qualifica- tion to the future exercise of their rights as citizens, is de- clared to be as follows:-I. Heading, writing, grammar, arithmetic, the metrical system, measures of magnitude, ele- mentary notions of physics, agriculture and industry, draw- ing, singing, and French history and geography.—2. The duties and rights of a man and a citizen, the development of. the sentiments of liberty, equality, and fraternity. 3. Elementary precepts of health and exercises useful to phy- sical development.—Religious instruction by the ministers of the different worships. Such is the extent of education which this project declares it to be the duty of the State to impart or cause to be imparted to'every child of either sex under the Republic. The machinery by which this immense d(!3ijrn is to be realised is declared to consist of public schools, Private schools, and family instruction, all of which are to V directly or indirectly controlled by the State. The pub' lie'schools are to be conducted at the expense of the State, aaij admiaisteved under the direction of the Ministei-of Pub- lie Instruction. The masters and mistresses of private schools must be licensed by the State, and their qualifica- tions must be tested bv means appointed by the Minister of Public- Instruction. All children of every class, from,the Holiest to the lowest, are subject to the surveillance Of, the -'liuister of Public Instruction, whose duty it is to see that none arc unedueated. The following is the fourth section of this project, in :vlach the means of compulsion are enumerated:—Every t'atUor, whose child, aged full ten years, is notoriously known ?°t to'frequent any school, or receive primary instruction, l oblio-ed on notice from the mayor, to present him to the eonimissiou of examination as to instruction. If the child be not presented, or if it appear that he does not frequent school, or receives no instruction, the father may be citod at the request of the commission before the justice of peace, and reprimanded. The judgment shall be publicly posted up at the mayoralty for a month. If the commission Report on the following year that he has not attended to the l'eyrimand, the father shall be cited before the civil tribunal °t' the district, and condemned to a fine of from 20 to 500 fruncs and suspension of his electoral rights during a period n°texceedhv five years. The punishment shall cease when the commission shall report that the child has received pri- mary instruction. If we are going to have State education, we repeat for fae twentieth time, it must be compulsory ere long. And it only right it should be so. If the State gives the money, <• jt is the right of the Slate to regulate the quantity and qua- lity 0f {he instruction. In this project justice is done to class in the community, because if it is the duty of the '^tate to educate partially it is its bounden duty to entirely. The mockery of pretending to educate the poor, whilst the middle and higher classes are permitted to do Ilttt they.p12tlSe, is not tolerated in this scheme. This is [ tilt" only kind of State education which is just and impartial: a!*d if we are going to have such a system in Eugland, as ^axe of our friends so conscientiously and so devoutly de- 1 |U'e> we hope it will be according, to the French fashion, tj I'1 fact we should have no groat objection to see it.tried. Wo believe the trial would not long tax our patience if we should thus have it at once. The only danger is in the gra- dual for-nnf of the links. If the chain were at once pre- .sonted, all would be well.. Some people however imagine ,v„^at a few links in the shape of minutes now and then are respectable things. They don't please them as a whole, |at for the parts they have, the most intense admiration, j admirable sagacity! Fathomless wisdom this did we not ( that the whole is made up of the parts. Let us ^io\v however what we are about. All honour to M- ^i'not for his open and advised speaking. He is a friend °t progress. He moves on at a railway pace. His ideas "I anxious are not kept in abeyance for long to wait an experiment, lie sets about his business in !?sht earnest. lie will give such instruction as will develop 'ty. equality, and fraternity; but enormous as is that r^do he does not- stop there. He proceeds to religious .4 .truction by the ministers of the different denominations not only so, but also to the instruction imparted on the Rental hearth. There is not a single dolt to go uneducated, i *e Minister of Instruction will cram every child from high ], |° l»\v until they will be brimful, if not bursting, with know- ••U'4ge. Y>e thank M. Carnot for his candour and explicit- f and recommend our own Government inch to tell us "[-,Vastly how far they intend to go, and where they think ^topping. It is neither fair pr.honest to keep us in the Iv^'k. It. is neither candid nor just to condemn the minutes I j1* a whole and embrace them in parts. Oat with the secret ktc'atioi)s. Let us have the planning* for. undoubtedly > ^sty will be the best policy.

; ' ~~ CABDIFF..

GLAMORGANSHIRE QUARTER SESSION.

THE PRINCIPALITY.

NEWPORT.

MKRTIIYR.

THE GOD-SEND OF FINALITY.