Philosophy of education during the French Revolution and special learning needs

Special Needs Education

Briefly discuss trend education special children (learning disabled.) French Revolution. What philosophic principles period education reflects?

Briefly discuss the trend in the education of special needs children (learning disabled etc.) after the French Revolution. What philosophic principles of the period did this education reflect?

The first intelligence tests were developed in France as a way of screening students' ability to function within its confines, and even today the French educational system is notable for its high degree of centralized control. Still, based upon its democratic principles, which began with the French Revolution and were formally enshrined into law during the Napoleonic period, France strove to educate all of its citizens in an equal fashion, and to make them all feel like true citizens of France. Today, in France, around 100,000 students identified as suffering from various disabilities go to special schools run by the Ministry of Health. 200,000 more receive vocational instruction and 300,000 aged 16+ obtain vocational apprenticeships (Mills 2011). This is reflective of a larger cultural trend that occurred after the French Revolution -- the drive to provide specialized education for students to thrive in the school system. However, special education has evolved slowly, first attempting to sequester special in separate classes, and only gradually moving to mainstream them whenever possible.

Within the standard French educational system as in the American school system, there non-vocational classes which act as bridges or support for children with mild challenges and programs specifically for children with intellectual, psychological, emotional or behavioral problems that makes it difficult for them to learn in mainstream classes. "The aim is to get these children (around 5% of the pupils in any one year group) to achieve a minimum skills level: the CAP (certificat d'aptitude professionnel), which sanctions training in a specific vocational skill" (Mills 2011). This is also reflected in the American school system. American students are likewise required to be educated in the least restrictive fashion possible so long as their disability is accommodated and dealt with: for example a dyslexic student might be given additional reading support and 'talking books' so he can keep pace with his peers.

All schooling in France today is overseen by the Ministries of Health (special education) or the National Education Ministry (generalized education). Although the French Revolution certainly had many negative consequences, it did herald many positive developments in education. The Paris Normal school system was designed to instill all students, regardless of class, with a common "republican morality and the public and private virtues, as well as the techniques of teaching reading, writing, arithmetic, practical geometry, French history and grammar" (Markham 2010). Merit rather than birth was supposed to dictate a student's future. Napoleon, after he assumed power, made the education of the middle-class a top priority of his regime. Local municipalities were in charge of elementary-level education, but after that point education was assumed by the state in a formal, highly standardized secondary educational system. While elementary schools were sometimes sponsored by religious authorities, and also provided education to girls, secondary schools were for boys 10-16 and designed to provide the nation with the next generation of military and civic leaders. Post-secondary instruction provided by lycees was designed to create an elite class of rulers.