WORLD WORLDWIDE EUROPE FRANCE - news journal UPDATE - (en) France, Monde Libertaire - Ideas and struggles: Evening school (ca, de, fr, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

 After their day's work ---- What energy must have animated these workers

who, after a grueling day's work from 5 a.m. to 7 p.m., went to evening
classes in mathematics, French, geometry, mechanics, and general culture
lectures! They wanted to strengthen their know-how and understand the
world as it is. ---- Before the republican institutionalization of
school, evening classes became widespread "in this period (1815-1870)
which saw the profound transformation of education and the world of work
while the dual movement of broadening popular sovereignty and industrial
expansion began." Carole Christen, a professor of contemporary history,
accompanies us in the discovery of a little-known period, that which
extends from the fall of the Empire in 1815, the Restoration until the
end of the Second Empire in 1870 in her book L'école du soir, published
by Champ Vallon in 2023. "Giving knowledge to workers in order to enable
them to improve their professional position and increase their nest egg
through better qualifications is the main objective claimed by these
evening schools.[...]They must moralize and acculturate workers to
bourgeois values." Often adult students are rewarded by the opening of a
savings bank account. Note the rise of women in these courses, going
from 4,000 students in 1843 to more than 100,000 in 1869.

The Republican idea of disseminating knowledge

In order to improve the efficiency of workers in the use of
technologies, many liberal philanthropists and polytechnic engineers
intend to fight against illiteracy. It is necessary to adapt to the "new
manufacturing order" by taking inspiration from Great Britain. As early
as 1819, the National Conservatory of Arts and Crafts developed "a
public and free education for the application of science to the
industrial arts". A certain Dupin, an engineer, developed the teachings
in the company of François Arago in particular. Could the Republican
idea of disseminating knowledge not already be in embryo? The reader
will be surprised by the research in pedagogy, the transmission of
knowledge adapted to an adult audience. Brochures and handouts are
distributed. This arouses interest but also concern on the part of the
authorities. What can be shared there beyond simple technology? And
especially at the end of classes. A teacher publicly advises his
students to be careful in their expression if they want the classes to
continue. The police are not far away, just like the spies of the
government.

A mobilization of all the actors

But the experience is not limited to Paris, initiatives are developing
in mainland France, supported by municipalities. The book uses posters
from Troyes, Chalons, Lyon, Rennes... Very different educational
concepts support the projects. We can note the Polytechnic Association,
a philanthropic society for the education of workers. In the provinces,
the Free Society of Emulation of Rouen or the Philomatic Society of
Bordeaux are symptomatic of the time, a technical and moralizing
approach. The Brothers of the Christian Schools are establishing
themselves, combining teaching and morality. Educational municipalism
developed in republican or progressive communes. Social reformers,
between 1830 and 1850, also intended to participate in the education of
the people, republican propaganda was instilled in particular through
history and French lessons. New teaching methods relied on public
libraries. A real republican club was established as a network. You have
to read these pages to understand the slow but inexorable evolution
during the middle of the 19th century until 1848. Many teachers worked
voluntarily but also self-taught people like Martin Nadaud, the Creuse
mason, who went from student to teacher, Agricole Perdiguier, Flora
Tristan appear in these pages. Popular athenaeums were set up. Later,
agrégé teachers, doctors reinforced the weight of these structures. We
will even speak of the Sorbonne of workers. A nice formula especially in
times when this institution constituted the symbol of knowledge in the
hands of the bourgeoisie. This evening school "participates in the
construction of a more educated society, better trained in the
techniques and sciences necessary for the adaptation of traditional
trades to the industrialization process in progress and capable of
participating in democratic life by the reasoned exercise of the right
to vote, from 1848". I will add that witnesses such as Eugène Varlin,
Victorine Brocher, followed these courses. The teachings disseminated,
the methods used, the demands will be found in the ideals of the Commune
and in particular the need to balance intellectual and manual knowledge.

Carole Christen - Evening school - Ed. Champ Vallon, 2023

https://monde-libertaire.fr/?articlen=8173
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