The new North-west. [volume] (Deer Lodge, Mont.) 1869-1897, 1886-01-15
EDUCATION IN FRANCE.
a VIEW OF THE PARIS SCHOOLS AND
THEIR METHODS.
Six Great Diyisions-A Boys Course
from His Seventh to lais Twen-
tietK Year-The J. :fe of
Boarding Pupils.
brooklyn Eagle.l

teaching is carried out are lycees and COM
munal colleges. The two differ but little,
except that the teaching in the colleges does
not reach so high grade as that of the
lycees. There are also few private insti-
tutions, but even here the course OF instruc-
tion follows much the same track an in the
actual state schools, many of the same pro-
fessors are employed, and being subject to
state inspection and certain other official re-
quirements, they are really semi-govern-
mental institutions.
In the city of Paris there are six great
ancient and celebrated lycees: Louis Le
Grand, Napoleon, ST. Louis, Charlemagne,
Bonaparte and Bourbon, and two colleges
Stanislas and Rollin At these, with the ex-
ception of Charlemagne and Bonaparte, the
pupils are either externes or internes, who
are subdivided. into pensionnaires and demi
pensionnaires-the latter being boarders who
do not sleep in the lycee, but in all other
respects are like pensionnaires and externes,
who come simply for the lectures and live
and receive tuition more comfortably and
under more parental supervision at some of
the numerous boarding houses which are to
be found in the neighborhood of the lycees
GENERAL MANAGEMENT AND SUPERVISION
The staff of lycee is two fold-adminis-
trative and tutorial The first comprises
the proviseur, who is the chief manager
the censeur and the econome, or steward
Their duties are entirely confined to the
general management and supervision of the
school in all except educational matters
The tutorial part contains, firstly, the pro-
fessors or lecturers and professors titss;a-
ries who are assistant lecturers and tutors
Neither of these have any other duties than
to teach, and, in order to attain one of these
posts, they must have passed an examina
tion in the subjects and manner OF teach
ing and have attained the age of 25. Among
them are many distinguished literary and
scientific men, whom the outer world knows
not as lecturers at Paris lycee, but as au-
thors and savants of European fame
Under them are the waitres d'Etude or
ushers, who act as ever watchful guardians
of the boys, old and young, by night and
day, in school hours and play time, but who
take no part whatever in the duty of teach
ing. There are also two chaplains who lee
ture twice a week; but those boys who do
not belong to the Roman Catholic faith are
allowed to receive instruction from ministers
Of their own denomination
Suppose we take now the Lycee Louis le
Grand; it will show very clearly the general
working of secondary public instruction in
France, and a short description Of the
building and arrangements, as saw them on
a somewhat gloomy February morning, will
make the account more vivid The Lycee
LoMis lie Grand stands in the center of the
scholastic part of Paris; on every side is
something to remind the stranger that he
has quilted the gay for the grave; the streets
are known as the Rue de I'Ecole de Medi-
cine, Rue Laplaee aad by other names, each
sayoring of learning. The Lycee itself faces
the narrow ill-paved Rue st. Jacques, and
externally differs much from the fresh look
ing Lycee st. Louis, half way up the Bou-
levard st: Michel. 1t still remains, however,
the largest of all the Partisan schools, con-
tanning about 1,G00 scholars, and continues
as famous and well conducted as when it
was the Jesuit school of Clerlnont, and Louis
le Grand visiting it and exclaiming, ''This is
my college," the next morning saw, with
Jesuitical tact, the words engraved on the
stone front Louis le Grand'
FROM SEVEN TO TWENTY.
Let us suppose, then, that any boy-we
will call him Louis ,Delorme-has reached
the age of Z, and that his parents have de-
termined that he shall go through the whole
course sof the Lycee. He enters, and is
forthwith placed in the lowest class of the
division Elementaire, the classe preparatoire;
frem thence he proceeds into the eighth and
seventh, and is then transferred into the
sixth class, the lowest of the next division,
that of Grammaire, but not until he has
passed satisfactory examination in what
he has been taught since he entered the
school He now quickly passes through the
sixth, seventh and eighth classes, and we
hope to find him at the age of IA fit, if he
likes, to go upward into the division
Superieure and continue the studies, or to be
turned out into the world sufficiently learned
to pursue a mercantile career
Young Louis has then thoroughly learned,
or is supposed to have done so, the subjects
given in the prospectus, which now lies be-
fore me, and from which the following ex-
tract is taken: "In the first two. divisions
the subjects of study are reading, writing
and the recitation of select extracts, the
elements of French, Latin and Greek gram
mar explained by authors from each
language, sacred and ancient history and
that of France, geography, the elements of
arithmetic and a little geometry, drawing
from nature and lineal drawing, together
with vocal music and a course of gymnas-
tics"
The study of modern languages begins in
the first classes, and goes ON regularly to the
sixth, by means of a practical teaching, SO
that at the end of his course of study a
pupil will know perfectly whatever language
he may have chosen. 1t is even pos.
sible for quick and Woodworking boys to
carry away with them an accurate ac-
quaintance both of German and English.
Again another examination, and our young
friend is safely in the highest division, and
Tasses with credit through the third and sec
oRd classes, through those of rhetoric and
philosophy, where he has had opportunities
Of learning, in addition to the subjects al
ready mentioned, but in more advanced
form, philosophy, mathematical sciences,
chemistry and natural history. Being
hard-working and smart boy, he has, at the
earliest period possible, when he left the
class Of philosophy, taken both the degrees
Of Baccalaureat of Letters and of Sciences
He is now 90 years old, and has any liberal
career open to him.