Le temps scolaire et la morale sociale

Abstract

At the end of the 19th century, the role of the school was to make France literate. It was also to give a purely secular moral education. The stakes of the moral run through Durkheim's work on the school, in which he defends the thesis that education is moral and that it proceeds from reason alone. However, Durkheim does not dwell, or does so little, on the mechanism by which the school carries out this moral and rational education. The article deals with this system from the point of view of time. The demonstration has two goals. The first is to show that school time is the instrument of submission to rational discipline. As such, time is at the heart of the methodical socialisation of children which first disciplines them and then makes them autonomous. However, this model is only valid in a given historical context of the school's amplification of the nation state and patriotism. The second goal is to show that the uses of time have evolved with the transformation of the school. Upon this evolution, the conclusion raises the question of morality in a frame without tensions between individuals and groups on the one hand, and the instrumental uses of time on the other.

Keywords

• temps
• espace
• morale
• École de la République
• emboîtement
• massification scolaire