Honors Theses

Date of Award

5-2025

Document Type

Undergraduate Thesis

Degree Name

BA

Department

Literature

Faculty Mentor

Susan McCready

Advisor(s)

Harry Roddy, Eleanor ter Horst

Abstract

The Third Republic’s reforms established France’s public education system on several foundational ideals: upholding republican values, resisting autocratic authorities, promoting critical thinking, and promoting personal liberty and freedom of thought. This project explores French literature and cinema with significant representations of education for the purpose of examining to what extent such ideals are upheld or undermined in their portrayals of education. Such an examination of French education and its underlying values is significant in such a time in history when France is experiencing a “contemporary crisis of republican schooling” (Sachs 179). Alongside the historical significance of such studies, the more general need for this kind of research is humanity’s social responsibility for preparing the next generation to take their place in the forefront of civilization – naturally, this involves ensuring that a society’s education system and general approaches to the development of its children are of the highest possible quality. Chapter 1 will explore how select French works portray the ideals of French education, especially the promise of how republican education can positively shape children’s lives. Chapter 2 will then explore how representations of French education expose the education system for, in many ways, failing to uphold its ideals and even negatively impacting students’ lives. The conclusion will then synthesize these findings, proposing a well-rounded understanding of French education as a system that falls short of its values in many ways, but which maintains potential in returning to its foundational ideals.

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© 2025 Delaney Laurel Drury ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

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