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LAKANAL, JOSEPH (1762-1845)

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Originally appearing in Volume V16, Page 85 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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LAKANAL, See also:JOSEPH (1762-1845) , See also:French politician, was See also:born at See also:Serres (See also:Ariege) on the 14th of See also:July 1762. His name, origin-ally Lacanal, was altered to distinguish him from his Royalist See also:brothers. He joined one of the teaching congregations, and for fourteen years taught in their See also:schools. When elected by his native See also:department to the See also:Convention in 1792 he was acting as See also:vicar to his See also:uncle See also:Bernard See also:Font (1723-1800), the constitutional See also:bishop of Pamiers. In the Convention he held apart from the various party sections, although he voted for the See also:death of See also:Louis XVI. He rendered See also:great service to the Revolution by his See also:practical knowledge of See also:education. He became a member of the See also:Committee of Public Instruction See also:early in 1793, and after carrying many useful decrees on the preservation of See also:national monuments, on the military schools, on the reorganization of the Museum of Natural See also:History and other matters, he brought forward on the 26th of See also:June his Projet d'education nationale (printed at the Imprimerie Nationale), which proposed to See also:lay the See also:burden or See also:primary education on the public funds, but to leave secondary education to private enterprise. See also:Provision was also made for public festivals, and a central See also:commission was to be entrusted with educational questions. The See also:scheme, in the See also:main the See also:work of Sieyes, was refused by the Convention, who submitted the whole question to a See also:special commission of six, which under the See also:influence of See also:Robespierre adopted a See also:report by See also:Michel le Peletier de See also:Saint Fargeau shortly before his tragic death. Lakanal, who was a member of the commission, now began to work for the organization of higher education, and abandoning the principle of his Projet advocated the See also:establishment of See also:state-aided schools for primary, secondary and university education. In See also:October 1793 he was sent by the Convention to the See also:south-western departments and did not return to See also:Paris until after the revolution of See also:Thermidor. He now became See also:president of the Education Committee and promptly abolished the See also:system which had had Robespierre's support.

He See also:

drew up schemes for departmental normal schools, for primary schools (reviving in substance the Projet) and central schools. He presently acquiesced in the supersession of his own system, but continued his educational reports after his See also:election to the See also:Council of the Five See also:Hundred. In 1799 he was sent by the See also:Directory to organize the See also:defence of the four departments on the See also:left See also:bank of the See also:Rhine threatened by invasion. Under the Consulate he resumed his professional work, and after See also:Waterloo retired to See also:America, where he became president of the university of See also:Louisiana. He returned to See also:France in 1834, and shortly afterwards, in spite of his advanced See also:age, married a second See also:time. He died in Paris on the 14th of See also:February 1845; his widow survived till 1881. Lakanal was an See also:original member of the See also:Institute of France. He published in 1838 an Expose sommaire See also:des travaux de Joseph Lakanal. His eloge at the See also:Academy of Moral and See also:Political See also:Science, of which he was a member, was pronounced by the See also:comte de See also:Remusat (February i6, 1845), and a See also:Notice historique by F. A. M. See also:Mignet was read on the 2nd of May 1857.

See also notices by Emile Darnaud (Paris, 1874), " See also:

Marcus " (Paris, 1879), P. See also:Legendre in Hommes de la revolution (Paris, 1882), E. See also:Guillon, Lakanal et l'instruction publique (Paris, 1881). For details of the reports submitted by him to the See also:government see M. See also:Tourneux, " Histoire de 1'instruction publique, actes et deliberations de la convention, &c." in See also:Bibliog. de l'hist. de Paris (vol. iii., 1900) ; also A. See also:Robert and G. Cougny, Dictionnaire des parlementaires (vol. ii., 1890).

End of Article: LAKANAL, JOSEPH (1762-1845)

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