the Convention must explain, as it is this measure on which definitive resolutions will later depend in order to establish a plan for a sound education.

The measure I have to propose is not based on any of those abstract ideas by which the majority of plans that have been presented to us find themselves encompassed. It is simple: it has reason as a support, evidence as a principle, & experience as a guarantor of success.

The measure consists in putting in place a true common education; the only one suitable for all periods, & all ages; the only one applicable to the interests of society & of each person who makes it up. Furthermore, it has this advantage: that it can be put it into place as soon as it is adopted. It does not entail any sort of advance, stake, or expenditure that would put a strain on the Nation; for the institutions are already in existence; the teachers exist. These institutions & teachers, are scattered all over the Republic. They are everywhere throughout the territory; pupils can present themselves there with confidence, certain that they will receive the education they rightfully deserve.

This measure equally obliges all citizens to learn, at a set age, an art, a trade or a profession capable of procuring them the means of subsistence.

We have decreed equality: we wish it not to be an empty name, that it remain illusory & without reality; for in a democratic & popular Republic, the law of equality is the only law that can bring about common happiness.

Let us remember those times of despotism & barbarism, when the purest & most useful portion of the people, those who lived in poverty & mediocrity, were known only under the most odious & ignominious qualifications

Of proletarians, manual laborers; as if pleasures & happiness were only to be shared by idle & useless men. Let us hasten to eradicate the very memory of those times of shame & disgrace, & let us announce to the universe that all free Frenchmen will henceforth be manual laborers, & will pride themselves on the completion of work convenient to them, their fellow men & all of society.

It is widely known that at this time, the Republic is filled with a mass of young adolescents who, up until now, have remained in a dire state of inaction. Many household heads, imbued with false prejudices, or led by more illicit motives, have preferred to leave their children in a sorrowful state of neglect rather than form them to become useful citizens through the practice of arts & trades indispensable for the diverse needs of society. Indeed, do you believe that former nobles & legislators, those engaged in religious practice, the rich merchants, & the majority of the well-off bourgeoisie spread across our cities & countryside, would readily decide to make their children study a trade or profession, if the law were not to oblige them to do so? There is no doubt that they will base their refusal on the apparent pretext of an education based on sciences & letters, to which, they will say, they destine their children. However, I will say to them that, in a democratic republic, it is better to value laborious hands & arms dedicated to work, than the cold & pointless conceptions of the mind.

It is thus time to forestall the evils which a prolonged idleness would cause; it is time to remind men of their foremost duties, of their true interests; it is time to give back to agriculture, the arts, & useful professions, this mass of workers which pride, egoism, aristocracy, & superstition have taken from them.

Men, made equal by nature & subject to the same needs, must share the same charges & dedicate themselves to the same work.

The law I propose shall be one of wisdom & of benefaction, from which society & individuals will reap the most advantageous results.

It will be a law of wisdom because it will consecrate the law of equality. When young citizens go on & share indistinctly the same type of labor, join the same workshops, they will recognize that the law of equality is common to all men, & that all exclusive ambitions must disappear & be obliterated before it.

Furthermore, it is a law of wisdom in that it aims to reinforce individual liberty. The man who finds stable resources against necessity & unforeseen life accidents through the exercise of a trade, truly becomes independent & is in full possession of the most limitless liberty.

It will be a law of benefaction in that it will rescue young citizens from the idleness that corrupts them, for the idle man is the enemy of his fellow men. It will fulfill the necessities of society by giving back to it the men whose only purpose was to burden it with their useless existence.

Finally, the execution of this law will be, for those who will carry it out, the purifying vessel where the prejudices of the ancien régime will melt away; it will pull young citizens out of the state of isolation where pride precipitates them. It will silence hatred, envy, suspicions, unjust detentions, & it will prepare the return of trust towards these men who, justly inspiring motives of distrust, will not be able to make them disappear until we see said men draw closer & merge with the mass of citizens as they exercise the same arts & the same professions.

DECREE PROPOSAL

ARTICLE ONE.All citizens having reached the age of twelve, will be obligated to learn a trade or profession capable of procuring, for those who exercise them, the means of their survival.

II. Fathers, mothers, guardians & other persons who have children in their care, will be held responsible for not implementing this present law, on whatever part concerns them, at the risk of having a reputation as being bad citizens.

III. Fathers & mothers who, by their notoriously known poverty, will be unable to pay the costs of their children’s education, will present themselves before the local government where they reside, who will pay for them, with the cost being reimbursed to them via the product of supplementary monies or via fixed taxes on the rich.

IV. The acts of these apprenticeships, including the commitment undertaken between the pupil & he who commits to teaching, will be collected by local officials of the municipality where the instructor lives; the aforementioned officials will keep a register or list which will detail the names & ages of the youth who engage in apprenticeships, & provide a copy, at the end of each year, to the director of their administrative district.

V. Children of farmers, & in general those who work in agriculture, are not included in the provision of the present law.

VI. The present law will be enacted in all the regions of the Republic in the month of its promulgation, & municipalities will be obligated to ensure its prompt & complete enactment.

Explanation of the law’s motives.I set the age of twelve years old as the beginning of trade apprenticeships because this period, to me, seemed to be the most appropriate & prevent any inconvenience.³

Before the age of twelve, the child may possibly not have the sufficient strength to carry out work; in fact, the time preceding this age could be dedicated to accumulating the education appropriate for this age group in primary schools. Later on, one risks reaching the perfection of a chosen art too late, or finds oneself caught by surprised during a time when the country requires of oneself other services.

In rural areas, the child having reaching their twelfth year, joins a group that works with certain crops, carries on the work required, & remains immutably attached to it.

In urban areas, the child who, at the same age, is fixed on a trade, should by the age of fifteen possess two advantages: physical strength, & the practice of a useful profession. Enriched by this sole inheritance, he may travel, with the security that freedom from need bestows, to the different territories of the Republic, improving in the exercise of his art through the reconciliation of experience, adding to his acquired knowledge, & forging through his own active industry the bases of a long-lasting happiness.

3. The children of free men always precede in strength & intellectual abilities than the children of slaves. This is the motive as to why I decided to make age twelve the beginning of trade apprenticeships, which incidentally is learned with more ease, when the practice begins early. There could be some exceptions, however, for certain trades which require certain physical strengths; therefore, the term could be deferred, but it should not be extended past the sixteenth year.

A three-year course will suffice for this type of education, & guides this child of the Republic to his eighteenth year. Then if the country has enemies it must fight, he will be honored to go in its defense; for in the future the Republic wishes to entrust only its own children with the task of defending it. This act of devotion having been completed, he returns to his household, there decides on a virtuous, active, & hard-working companion, & he becomes himself the founder of a new family, with which the Republic enriches itself.

Such is the progress of a republican & truly public education; I know of no other one. This is the end that education must accomplish, & the result that must complete it.

For the most part, this same plan is applicable to girls. Indeed, any girl who has reached the age of fifteen, needs to have learned & know a trade suitable to her sex. In possession of this precious resource, she can confidently aspire to the role of mother, for which nature has destined her. However, if she believes it more useful to delay this to a later age, she can either continue with the carrying out of her profession, or learn from a virtuous mother, the efficient use of time by sharing with her domestic duties & tasks.

Let us not believe that under a republican, democratic, & popular regime, the plague of domesticity will be able to continue to afflict the social corps as much as it has up until this point. Every homemaker must learn to do without outside help, & should not abandon tasks that have been entrusted to her in the hands of those who work for money. Domesticity is not a profession; it should only be considered as a period of apprenticeship, a type of practical education, when the youth can receive useful lessons & examples. This apprenticeship should

be of short duration; & this period once passed, there are other tasks & duties that nature & society decree ought to be taken care of.

There is a truth that must be engraved into each individual, & that is, in a republic where fortunes must be completely divided up, where everyone must have little, in order for everyone to have something; in a nation where an immense horde of priests, cloistered girls, women led astray by superstition or degraded by vice, is going to disappear once & for all, it is necessary that marriages regain their dignity, & that celibacy be eternally prohibited. Celibacy has never been anything more than a sophisticated corruption, & a way of satisfying, more freely, shameful pleasures.

I leave these reflections to the meditation of the wise & true friends of the popular cause: they are inspired to me only by the fierce desire that I have to see men happy. These reflections are not made to be debated by philosophers. It is only up to feeling & moving sensitivity to appreciate them, & to remain convinced that only in fulfilling the measure I propose, will we accelerate the renewal of morality; the only thing capable of bringing about the prosperity & immutability of the Republic.

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