TRAINING OF TEACHERS IN FRANCE 183 



this is contemplated in the proposed plan. It is to be hoped too 

 that room may be found for the philosophy of education, for school 

 hygiene, and for some ideas of the pedagogy of other countries than 

 our own. 



Finally, would it not be well to open the university to teachers 

 with a view to broadening their general or professional training? 

 This question is being more and more persistently raised in Germany. 

 In France, in certain university towns, normal students of the third 

 or fourth year pursue either public courses or a few of the private 

 courses in the departments of literature or science. In other cities 

 free lectures are given for the normal schools themselves by university 

 professors. Doubtless it would be sufficient to make these attempts 

 more general, to strengthen them and extend their advantages to 

 the other normal schools. I have no doubt the university professors 

 would gladly lend their aid to such an attempt. At any rate, if a 

 department of pedagogy were established in all of our universities, 

 it would be easy to connect it with the normal schools of that part 

 of the country. The normal director or professors would continue 

 to give instruction in practical pedagogy, but the university professor 

 would be a member of the examining board to pass judgment on the 

 students' pedagogic dissertations. It would be his further duty to 

 lecture each year on such questions of vital importance as might call 

 for discussion. 



Another reform which has been suggested raises even greater diffi- 

 culties, for it threatens the very existence of the normal schools at 

 St. Cloud and Fontenay. Their pupils, it is claimed, are students in 

 the department of higher education. Should we not be justified 

 in turning them over to the universities? Is it not useless and ex- 

 pensive to assemble and confine them in special schools, the cost of 

 whose establishment and maintenance must be met, when the same 

 instruction could be given, in some instances, by the same professors, 

 in the University of Paris or the universities in other parts of France? 

 To the examination for a professorship sit not only the pupils of 

 these special schools, but also candidates \vho have pursued their 

 studies in a department of the university, and it is clear that the 

 universities could offer to these young teachers every opportunity 

 necessary for preparation for their future work. Ought we then to 

 abolish the schools at St. Cloud and Fontenay? The idea suggests 

 itself readily enough, but its practical application is by no means 

 an easy matter. These two schools have traditions that are of 

 real value. Thanks to the very unity of management and to the 

 maintenance in them of the pedagogic spirit these institutions are 

 in a position to render still greater services. But they can urge 

 no greater claims for support than could the normal school of Paris; 

 moreover, the decentralization would have advantages unnecessary 



