The teaching of Latin in French secondary education. Social forms and legitimacies of an academic discipline between monopoly and decline (16th-20th)

Abstract

Up until the 1960s, before scientific courses attracted the best performing students, the Queen’s highway of secondary education was paved with Latin declensions. For centuries, from the very birth of «secondary» education until the disappearance of Latin in the sixth grade in 1968, Latin literature imposed its dominance. At the same time, however, it attracted criticism and opposition, the vast majority of students were facing great difficulties in the learning process, and Latin was the focal point for recurrent debate regarding the modernisation of education. Throughout this article, the «Latin question», subject of many controversies of the late 19th century, takes the form of the «Latin enigma» directed at History. This «enigma» is discussed from a perspective linking together the status of secondary education within general educational provision, its uses in society, the educational methods used and its function in the world of secondary education. The author particularly focuses on the constructed and ingrained forms and legitimacies characterizing the monopoly - until the 1860s – and then the hegemony of Latin literature not only on French literature but also on science, modern languages and more generally, on modern disciplines. Nevertheless, the teaching of the latter could have met the constantly renewed socio-political and economic requirements more appropriately.