Learning in the "small school" of the Ancien Régime
roviding free elementary-school education to the largest number of students in France and no longer just poor boys destined for the orders was a completely new idea under the Ancien Régime. Free education was first made available to girls. In 1598, in the Lorraine countryside, the Congrégation Notre-Dame, founded by Peter Fourier and Alix Le Clerc, opened a free elementary school for girls. In 1628, a Roman decree sent that female congregation to the city and subjected it to the cloister. Since the start of the 17th century, several cloistered orders had been teaching young day students in the urban areas free of charge. These included the renowned Ursulines. Towards the middle of the 17th century, the easing of canon law made the proliferation of uncloistered communities possible which in turn resulted in the creation of a number of"small schools" in the rural areas. Free education for boys became available in the second half of the 17th century. In this respect, the Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools, founded by John Baptist de La Salle (1651-1719), became the best known of the popular institutions for boys.
In the "small schools", academic instruction essentially involved learning to read, write and count. These three matters were not taught simultaneously, but one after another. The "small school" was primarily a place for learning to read. John Baptist de La Salle published a Syllabaire français (French syllabary) in 1698 and stirred up lively debates by proposing to teach students to read French before Latin. While preserving Latin, La Salle's innovation fit in with the thinking of the times, which placed more value on French than on the regional dialects. Moreover, teaching methods, particularly for the teaching of reading, abounded in the major cities during the century of lights. In particular, the use of images in books became a common technique for initiating children in the art of reading. Nevertheless, for most of the "small schools", the methods and materials used remained simple and changed little, which does not mean that they were not effective.For many children learning to read was the only schooling they received. Most of them did not stay in school long enough to learn to write. If they did manage to learn to write, the purpose of their education was the writing of useful texts: receipts, leases, proxies, etc. As in the case of reading, the students had to master letters before moving on to syllables, then words and sentences. The ability to count was partially related to the ability to read and was, in principle, taught after reading. Learning to count in that time meant learning to do sums or count using tokens. Counting could be done by hand or in writing, using Arabic numerals.
The literacy rate in France under the Ancien Régime is difficult to assess, generally because more people could read than write. It appears that, overall, despite the real progress that was made, women, rural people and the poor still accounted for the largest number of illiterates. Since school was not compulsory, the child was quickly sent out to work, particularly in the case of poor families or those living in isolated areas where there was no adequate school network. As for women, it is possible that parents were more likely to keep girls at home. Although boys had only minimal opportunities to go to college, girls had virtually none. Moreover, girls had no legal rights once married. As a result, girls had fewer opportunities to put schooling to use. Given this situation, it is still remarkable that so many girls were able to take advantage of elementary schooling.
As for basic schooling, the "small school" also dispensed "know-how." To be continued... on March 11, 2003.