ABSTRACT
The development of the modern school system is closely linked to the emergence of nation-states after 1800. To legitimize national territories as political unities, the nation-states drafted constitutions determining the sovereignty of the territory and the inhabitants as national citizens. The territory was supposed to be defended by the army, and the newly defined national citizens, most of them having been subjects in the ancien régime, had to be "made" by the national school system. The author focuses on the relation between central and local governance and then address the question of communicative practices within the school system. The Zurich, where knowledge was generated locally and decisions were often exchanged face-to-face, Luxembourg's central authorities needed an official gazette to serve as a communication tool to inform and instruct the school actors in the whole country. In Zurich, the fit between the expectations of the local authorities and the social-moral and professional quality of the teachers was largely secured in advance.
