TRAINING FRENCH CITIZENS.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."]
SIR,—The recent political dramas in France have led a band of patriotic Frenchmen to seek a novel way to prevent a recurrence of such affaires. They propose no less than the establishment of a school to train citizens, and are even now looking for a building in which to commence operations. They hold that the rioting in Paris during the Dreyfus agita- tion, the scenes in the Chamber, and the tone of the Press are all due to the defective education of individuals. In England we are taught in youth to respect law, to tolerate the opinions of others, and to realise that our actions may adversely affect the school to which we belong. In after life these ideas remain in us. In French schools, on the other hand, little or no attention is paid to these matters, and con- sequently the French citizen acts, when excited, as an individual rather than as one having at heart the interests of the commonweal.
The new school, which is to be called " le CoMge Normand,'' will be probably under the direction of M. Duhamel, now a master at Harrow, who holds that the present system of French education is detrimental to the physical and moral side of the nation, and that even the pupil's mental qualities suffer from the terrific strain of constant study. He proposes, therefore, to start with but thirty-five boys, among whom a good moral tone and a strong esprit de corps may be estab- lished, but to afterwards gradually increase the number. Only six hours per day will be devoted to mental work, and during those hours such subjects of practical utility as natural science, modern languages, history, and geography, will predominate,—the dead languages only being taught to boys over fourteen. The remainder of the day will be passed in the playing-fields and workshops. In this way M. Duhamel expects to educate his pupils more thoroughly than the State schools are able to do. He believes that the shortening of the hours of mental work will lead to a more retentive memory, and thus neutralise the loss in time, while the outdoor life will develop the boy physically, and possibly in the end do something to check the downward course of French physique. The whole system, in short, has been designed to secure the moral, physical, and mental training of individuals so as to eventually strengthen the nation. —Thanking you in anticipation, I am, Sir, &c.,
L. MEREDITH.
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