"[99]
Naught is more essential and naught is more legitimate.
"The country," says Robespierre, "has a right to bring up its own
children; it cannot confide this trust to family pride nor to the
prejudices of individuals, the eternal nourishment of aristocracies
and of a domestic federalism which narrows the soul by keeping it
isolated." We are determined to have "education common and equal for
all French people," and "we stamp on it a great character, analogous
to the nature of our government and the sublime doctrines of our
Republic. The aim is no longer to form gentlemen (messieurs) but
citizens."[100]
We oblige[101] teachers, male and female, to present certificates of
civism, that is to say, of Jacobinism. We close the school if
"precepts or maxims opposed to revolutionary morality" are taught in
it, that is to say, in conformity with Christian morals. Children
will learn to read in the Declaration of Rights and in the
Constitution of 1793. Republican manuals and catechisms will be
prepared for their use.[102] "They must be taught the virtuous traits
which most honor free men, and especially the traits characteristic of
the French Revolution, the best calculated to elevate the soul and
render them worthy of equality and liberty.
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