Year: 1877

Female lay teachers in France are, it


must be acknowledged, very greatly


inferior TO the lady teachers in the


United States. 1t is said that in Eng
land when man has failed at every


thing else he becomes a coal merchant.


We should not dream Of applying this


remark to French ladies as regards


school teaching. At the same time, it


is an established fact that the French
girls schools which are managed by


nuns, and especially those Of the Sisters
Of st. Vincent de Paul, are far above


the other female educational establish


ments. Most of the male lay teachers
are appointed from the primary normal
schools which exist in the chief town
of every department; and 1t Is a note
worthy fact that the majority of them
are ardent Republicans, notwithstand-
ing the fact that during the Empire
every effort was made to win them over
to the imperial side. In every normal
and primary school was the bust of
Napoleon, and liberal distribution
took place of the famous journal des In
StituteurS, every paragraph of which, po-
litical or educational, was dressed up In
NapoleOnic attire. Possibly some of
the lay primary school teachers have
adopted republicanism out of a spirit of
natural opposition TO their old adversa-
ries and competitors, the instituteurs
cOHgregdniSteS. OF these, too, word
must be said. While in the secondary
clerical schools most of the instructors
are Jesuits, in the primary schools
most of the teachers belong to the con-
fraternity of the Ecole Chretienne, the
members of which, without taking the
vows and assuming life long engage
ment, agree, nevertheless, to remain
single, to submit to the discipline of
the society, and to wear the ecclesias-
tical dress. Strict Ultramontanists
these brethren have been somewhat un.
justly nicknamed the treres Ignordntins.
Living as they do in common, with but
few wants, and receiving, whenever
the require it, pecuniary aid from the
wealthy party to which they belong,
they are satisfied with rate of pay less
than One-half that Of the lay teachers,
and are thus preferred in large num-
Der of communes on the simple ground
of economy. Their plan of instruction
is the same as that adopted in the secu-
lar primary schools, except that relig-
ious instruction and exercises, of
course, play larger part with them
than their lay brethren. The ultra
radicals, who in large measure con-
troll the educational appropriations in
the Town Council, are bitterly opposed
to any portion of the public instruction
remaining in the hands of the clerical
element, and their most strenuous eff.
forts are used to have all these congre-
gatiOnal schools of both sexes closed.
They would concentrate the entire
national educational system under the
control of body of lay teachers to be
paid by the towns and by the State. In
these views they are supported by the
Republican party, while the clergy
have on their side the majority of the
Senate. Whether the absence of cler-
ical competition would be likely to
prove advantageous or not to the secu-
lar educational establishments. we shall
not attempt to say, but certain it is
that the long continuance of this bitter
feud between the two parties has been
anything but conducive to the educa-
tional progress of France.-Lippincott's
MnnazLne.