Barry H. Bergen, History and Government

I propose to travel to France in the Summer of 2000 to begin research on a new book project, a short study of education in modern France (since 1789), with particular attention to the differences between elite and mass education at the elementary level. This project seeks to examine the two systems of elementary education which coexisted in France in the period from 1789 to the Second World War. On the one hand, the increasingly state-supported system of instruction for the children of the majority of France's population called "public primary education" was limited to very basic education. The other system was a parallel one of preparatory education at the elementary level, which led to the secondary schools and from there to higher education. Even the best students from public primary education did not continue on to secondary schools, much less to higher education. Primary education has been studied, as has secondary education, but the preparatory programs for secondary education have not. They form the central contribution of my proposed research, and the focus of my proposed research for this summer. I intend to submit the completed study to Longman's Press, which publishes a series into which this work would fit.