Harboring Day-Schools in France [pp. 187-196]

HARBORING DA Y-SCHOOLS IN FRANCE.
Doubtless some warrior of our house, long dead,
Won them by merit. Heavier blows by far
This athlete of God's church hath dealt her foes,
Too fiercely dealt them, Roman priests aver;
But then they fear his haughty strength, and looks
Still heated from the desert. Give him next
These two young doves, so loving and so mild;
And, last, this basket heaped with early cherries.
The hour he sat here first I gave him such!
Three years have passed since then. Smiling he spake:
"The gift is meet: cherries, like little maids,
Are fresh and pure; a blushful gleam without;
Hard heart within." I think he will remember!
HARBORING DAY-SCHOOLS IN FRANCE.*
To France is due the honor of having devised the salles d'asile
and the cr~ches, of having brought them very near to perfection,
and of having established the former, not only as important charitable institutions, but as an integral part of the national educational system. The salles d'asile are day-nurseries for the
harboring and care, during certain hours of the day, of children
of both sexes between the ages of two and six years. The
creches are in like manner for the use of children under two years,
including nurslings. In both cases the children are brought during stated hours in the morning and taken home in the evening
after work-hours. The mothers of nurslings come to nurse them
twice at appointed times during the day. Parents belonging
to the laboring classes, to whom the care of their young children
is some hindrance to their earning a livelihood, and particularly
widows or widowers burdened with families, find in the facilities
thus afforded great assistance and relief.
The first humble beginnings of the asiles date back to the
last century. In I770 Oberlin, the charitable pastor of the small
commune of Ban-de-la-Roche, in the department of the Vosges,
founded in five communes day-schools for very young children.
They were called &coles a tricotter (knitting-schools), because the
* The facts and information contained in this article have been derived from a work entitled
Manuel des Salles d'Asile, par J. D. M. Cochin, fondateur de la premiere salle d'asile modele a Paris. Ouvrage couronn6 par l'Academie Francaise et autorise par le Conseil de l'Instruction Publique. 5me edition... approuv&e par Mgr. le Cardinal Archeveque de Paris,
President du Comite Central de Patronage des Salles d'Asile. Paris, x857.