Democratic Sentinel, Volume 7, Number 50, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 January 1884 — French Schools. [ARTICLE]

French Schools.

A prominent feature of France is the attention which is paid to education. Between 1870 and 1881,16,678 schools have been erected, at an average cost of $2,600. In a recent statement M. Jules Ferry said, in vindication of the money .spent on education by the Government, that there was not a village church but cost SB,000, and that the school was of equal value. Twenty years ago the ambition was to erect churches. Now it is to erect schools. In' the course of ten years it is expected that 40,000 schools will be erected throughout the country, at a cost of $60,000,000 to the localities and $140,000,000 to the state. In the event of any parish proving contumacious the Prefects are invested with compulsory authority. The school buildings are to be modeled after the best patterns of those of England, Saxony, Belgium and Wurtemburg, and the value.of the playground is much insisted upon. There can be no two opinions as to the value of education to the republic, but it will be a misfortune if education is divorced from religion. —New York Herald.