Monarchy In Europe By Colleen Mcgow An Analysis

French education went from a method of keeping the people suppressed, to being valued as one of the most important aspects of society. The leaders of the revolution were trying to destroy anything that was setup by the government that came before them, to stop the past of oppression and struggle from repeating itself again. They saw education as the first and most important step to creating an advanced society, built by its citizens. Before, it was kept only for the highest classes and used as a way of keeping the workers of society as sheep. For this reason it was given a new value, where knowledge was seen as empowerment and what gave voice to the people. It was a public necessity and what awoke the lower classes to the world of suffering

Education was believed as being the empowerment of the people and what made each person an individual, no longer did the citizens and leaders of the revolution want it to be strictly for the upper classes. More specifically, the monarchy before the revolution controlled nearly every aspect of the people's lives and without better knowledge, nothing would be have been done about it. According to Colleen McGowan, a writer for Penn State University, “The history of the monarchy in Europe tells the story of oppression of the individual and the inequality between aristocrats and the majority. Absolutism and the ability to control lives never allowed for public participation in politics; it was only until the Enlightenment in the eighteenth century that the French people began to realize change was necessary. With new ways of thinking and increasing literacy, the empowerment of the individual grew to unprecedented levels, leading to a revolution against an oppressive government.” (McGowan). Before the revolution, the working class of French society were like sheep to the monarchy, only those with authority beared enough knowledge to make a change. It wasn’t until the unfair privileges of the 1st and 2nd estates left

If a person did not have any knowledge of their nation, then they could not speak up about their struggles and take action, like the people who lived under the government prior to the revolution. According to author J. David Markham in his article, “The Revolution, Napoleon, and Education”, “This was seen early in the Revolutionary period, in the cahiers that had been requested by Louis XVI. These cahiers consisted of grievances and/or suggestions for improvement. While the cahiers of the third estate (workers and peasants) seldom mentioned education, those of the first and second estates (clergy, nobility) often called for improvements in the educational system. Later, in 1793, the Convention established the Committee of Public Instruction, and charged it with reordering education in France. It is not surprising that the destructive tendencies of the other components of the Revolution were carried out in education as well. That which existed had to go, simply because it had existed before the Revolution” (Markham). Only those in the 1st and 2nd estate of France called for improvements to the educational system, this could have led to the start of a very similar government to the one before the revolution and a cycle where progress for the majority in the 3rd estate never happens. Although, thankfully this did not occur