« La plus grande utilité publique ». Renouveau pédagogique et éducation du corps au Collège de Sorèze (1759-1854)
Abstract
The Ecole Royale Militaire of Soreze (Royal Military School) was housed in the French province of Languedoc. On the eve of the 1789 Revolution it was still a religious institution run by the Benedictine monks, known for having broken with certain traditional models. The establishment offered special forms of instruction, stressing certain scientific and literary disciplines and also physical education (fencing, dancing, horse riding and equestrianism). Pupils’ best results were also recorded in swimming. At the end of every school year, all the results were confirmed by public examinations, labelled Exercices publics. By analyzing this unusual set of data – the Cahiers d’exercices – we can reconstruct the evolution of the school’s programs over a period of more than a century. The goal of the present study is to bring to light the incalculable richness of Sorèze’s programs, by distinguishing the elements already present in the military training of the period from the pedagogical innovations that were introduced, and the special place that was reserved for physical exercise. It will thus be possible to understand the total coherence of the scholarly program that this Catholic institution developed in pre-Revolutionary France.
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