The daily morning journal and courier., 1901-06-13
EDUCATING FRENCH BOYS.

Elements of English Training Advo-
 cated-Where the French Are Supe-
 rior.
 l have been favored with an early copy of the book entitled Comment
 Elever Nos Fils," which is to form the
 subject of a lecture at the Sorbonne on
 Sunday by M, Ernest Lavisse, of the
 Academic Francaise. The author is M. Joseph Dunhamel French master at
 Harrow school and the work has been
 written in explanation of the system of
 education which will be pursued at Le
 College de Normandie, which is to he
 founded at Monteauvaire, near Cleras,
 in the department of the Seine In- i ferieure. The fact that M. Paul Cain- ! bon, French ambassador in England, is
 coming here for the expres purpose of
 occupying the chair on this occasion shows the great interest which he takes | in the enterprise which vii be started under excellent auspices. M Joseph
 Duhamel, who has considerable experi-
 ence of public school life on your side
 of the Channel is to be the director of
 the new college, which will be started in a beautiful districts in France. This is an experiment which will be no
 doubt be followed with sympathy in England, since, although it's promoters
 proclaim their intention of keeping the
 establishment thoroughly French their
 motto being "F'rancais je suis," they
 will be inspired in some measure by
 what they hold to be the best side of British training. In the work which he
 is just bringing out M. Joseph Dun
 hamel goes at considerable length Into the programme of the curriculum which he proposes to adopt, and into a num- Der of other matters connected with the bringing up of youths. Special attan- tion will be devoted to the forming of character and to athletic sports as well. All the weak points of the French method will be studiously avoided, and. although the author candidly declares that the English educational system at least as regards certain of its features, is not altogether above criticism, it is to it that he turns wherever improve I ments or modifications have to Ja in troduced.
 The college will thus be conducted to some extent on English lines and rn- der the healthiest moral and physical conditions that could possibly be secur- ed. Nor will the question of diet be dis regarded. For instance, the uttar folly of giving French schoolboys lotnilg but cup of coffee and bit of bread to keep them going from 530 o'clock in the morning until the midday meal is exposed in this volume, high medi- cal authorities commenting on the i'm practical nature of the French regime. | We take" says one, two big repasts at an interval of six hours, and we rp- main for eighteen hours without swal- | lowing anything but light collation." Well ventilated classrooms and dorni- | tories, which are the exception in this country, will also be provided and duo attention will he paid to outdoor games. | Here in conclusion, are one or two com | between English and French | youths which, coming so close and ex- perienced an observer as M. Joseph Tu- hamel, are not devoid of interest He | thinks that the study of the English | language and literature is negl cted on your side of the Silver Streak.
 we defy an English schoolboy of | sixteen to seventeen to express him- self with the same elegance and purity of language as an eleve de rhetorique of | the same age. That attention to nethodical order in the expression of thought which is so manifest in the let ters of French youths does not trouble the English. lad" Outside his Latin and Greek authors, the average E,uF- fish pupil knows hardly any good cnes. His knowledge of the French and Ger man litera lures is nil. On the other 1and, M. Joseph Duhamel candidly ld- 1aits that while English schooboys in the higher forms "are impregnated with Roman and Greek culture" the French lyceens know little Latl and 10 Greek How, then, he asks does it happen that the essays of the former Ire so lacking in artistic and literary features. while those of the latter dis ,lav them? This, he holds, is ques- ion of race, and he adds: 'Th9 English pupil has qualities which the French youth does not possess, but they are of
 moral and not an intellectual order" French authorities, as q rule maintain hat schoolboys in this country 're in ,eneral intellectually superior to their Cnelish comrades, and this IS a ques- ion on which it might be instructive to btain the views of English scholmas- ers.-Paris correspondence of the Lon lon Telegraph.