834707848

IN SEARCH OF THE PERFECT CITIZEN. OFFICIAL DISCOURSE IN THE ROMANIAN SCHOOLS

(1831 - 1864)

MIRELA LUMIN1JA MURGESCU

It is a well-known fact that school and education have an outstanding part in shaping social identities ^x. Beginning with enlightenment and espe-cially during the 19th century, govemments and/or other political organiza-tions became increasingly aware of school’s ability to model the way peo-ple think about themselves and about others, to shape a so-called "imagi-ned community” ^{1 2}. This growing public sensibility to education problems was followed by concrete measures to gain/retain control over and to expand the •education system and by official reąuirements about how precisely should the teachers educate their pupils.

We intend to investigate in the following whether and how the authori-ties tried to influence the institutionalized shaping of social identities, and whether there is a significant mental, cultural and ideological distance bet-ween the School Regulation of 1832 in Wallachia, which asked the teachers to animate their pupils with "devotion to the holy, respęct to the laws and to the government, attachment to the good order and iove to the home-land” ³, and the Proclamation to the Peasants from 1864, where there was reąuested that children "should gain the knowledge useful to become good farmers and good citizens” ⁴.

The years 1831—1864 are a period of significant change in the eco-nomic, social, cultural and political framework of the Romanian Principali-ties. The limits chosen are of great significance also for the Romanian education system. Without neglecting the progress of the early 19th century, it ~was only with the Organie Regulations of 1831 that there were estblished the conditions for the institutionalized development of schooling as a coherent

1

   Marie-Christine, Kok-Escalle, Instaurcr une culture par Venseignement de 1'histoire: France 1876—1912, Bern, 1988, p. 4; see also Alexandru Dufu, Eseu in istoria modelelor umane, Bucureęti, 1972; Willem Frijhoff, L'ótat et Viducation (XVI^e — XVII^e siicle): une j>erspective globale, in Culture et ideologie dans la gendse de l'6tat modernę. Actes de la Table Ronde organisće par CNRS et 1'Źcole franęaise de Romę, Romę 15— 17 oct. 1984, Roma, 1985, p. 99-116.

2

   Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities. Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism, London, 1983.

3

⁸ Ioan C. Filitti, Principatele Romdne de la 1828 la 1824. Ocupafia ruseascd fi Reguła-mentul Organie, Bucure?ti, p. 356. For Moldavia see also: Gabriel B&dcLrńu, Organizarea fi eon-finutul lnvdtdmćLntului public din Moldova intre anii 1832 si 1848 (I), "Anuarul Institutului <3e Istorie §i Arheologie "A. D. Xenopor\ XVII, 1980, p. 352.

4

"Monitorul, jurnal olicial al Principatelor Unitę RcnuLne", 1864, no. 181, 15/27 August,

Rev. Ćtudes Sud-Est Europ., XXXIII, 1—2, p. 65—72, Bucarest, 1995 5-c. 1258