ABSTRACT
CHILDREN READING Despite the many plans and projects for the reform of the education system put forward during the years of the Revolution and its aermath, the scope and provision of education remained largely the same in the early years of the century as at the end of the ancien régime. A comparatively low number of children regularly attended schools, even elementary schools, in some areas. e serious situation as regards the lack of schools in some parts of the country; the poor quality of much of the teaching; and the totally unsuitable, and even insanitary, conditions in which such schooling that existed oen took place came to light in the survey ordered by François Guizot, the French minister for education, in 1833 in response to concern about widespread illiteracy. is initiative, and the alarming statistics it uncovered, resulted in the Guizot Law of 1833, motivated by the perceived need to bring morality and enlightenment to the masses, which set out the conditions for a widespread, organised, and supervised elementary education with a school in every village or small group of villages. Underpinning the law was the view that ‘universal elementary education shall henceforth be the guarantee of order and social stability’. What was envisaged for the primary schools was a very basic education for the masses, consisting of instruction on religion and morality, general social duties, and useful elementary knowledge.3
