The Manitowoc tribune. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1866-1878, 1871-01-12
THE SCHOOLS OF THE FRENCH
PEASANTRY.

articles on the peculiarities of the French
| national character, remarks that Ii might
be worth the while to look inao their
school books. Indeed it would. 1t is
especially amusing to read the few exist
ing elementary text books on geography
or history, in all Of which Clovis and
Charlemange figure as French Kings, %
the same as Henry " and Louis XIV,
and in which history is either derived
from the notorious bulletins of the First
Empire, or made up liz style closely re
sembling them. But many Of our read
ers may not be aware OF the fact that
''text books exist in comparatively few
''French schools" What should they +,
indeed, do with text books where the &C
complishments Of reading and writing
are as unknown as Sanscrit is in our
common schools? French village schools
meet once week, on Sunday, and the
priest (almost always Jesuit is teach
er, board of trustees, and superintendent
in one persoo. This excellent contriv-
ance does away with red tape in the most
efectual manner. We may easily imag-
inc VIVA. kind of food such parsonage
regales the hungry minds Of his pupils
with. The fruit Of this training is that
uncomfortable ignorance and infatuation
of the French people which we see more
and more exposed in their whole naked
ness. The main object of all these So
called schools seem to be to initiate the
minds of the people with fabulous and
wild ideas of French greatness and super
iority. What the Guizots, Theirs, and
Lamartines are or have been doing with
the intelligent few" in more subtitle
and shrewd manner, the plain village
priests are performing more 'palpably"
in the country. Here their task is inf
nitely easier and palmer, since to the
souls committed to their care the danger
GUS agency of the printing press has no
access. Thus they may be holder in the
suppression or misrepresentation Of the
truth. The. French village priest tells
his people plainly that Adam, the fls
man, was born Frenchman. Shem and
Ham, the lineal ascendants of the negroes
and Prussians, were nothing but degen-
crate Frenchmsn. Germany is a small
country near the North Pole, inhabited
by savages, and tyrannized over by the
Prussian King, who is an ogre, killing
his subjects by the way of pastime. julius
Caesar was the great founder of the French
Empire Clovis, Charlemagne and Ma
poleon, were his defendants. The French
village boy is told over and again that
life is not worth having beyond the from
tiers of his country. Hence the aversion
of the French peasantry to emigratc.-
Although the French peasant is the most
stupid and neglected of human beings
he yet lives and dies in the firm belief
that he, as Freedman, is infinitely su-
perior to all foreigners. Among the
French peasantry the worship Of the
First Napoleon is hardly less intense
than that of the Virgin Mary. His his
tory has been turned into a mythology,
similar to the hero worship of the an
clients. 1t would be of the highest
psychological interest to collect the le-
gends and tales circulating among the
French peasantry about the little corpor-
al, who made French peasants and tav-
ern-keepers mighty kings, and was cap
tured by the savages and thrown into
prison because he loved France too well.
Net one of the French Governments
that have followed each other for mere
than eighty years, have ever attempted
to educate the masses. We hope that
the terrible penalty which the whole
nation is now paying for this neglect, will
serve to the next Government as lesson
and make them appropriate to education
great part of the sums which hereto
fore were thrown away for maintaining a
useless army and navy W. Perry IN the
4nle7acx7 Educational Monthly,