Émile-Auguste Chartier (1868 – 1951), also known as Alain, was a French philosopher and journalist. He wrote on different subjects and more extennsively on education, happiness, and art. Some of his most important works : ‘Alain on Happiness’, ‘The Gods’, ‘Mars, or The Truth about War’.
This translated text is from his collected columns “Propos impertinents (1906-1911)” :
“ Whoever has seen one school has seen them all; nothing more ugly to see than a school. An old school can please by the kicks that have left their marks on the walls, by the imprints of the little fingers on the doors, but a new school is sinister.
The classroom walls have this varnish of hygienic cleanliness, which immediately makes one think of compartments in our big train stations. To make the eyes rest and to evoke the absent nature, we hung on the wall maps and paintings that we will never imagine as ugly as they are if we have not seen them.
The so-called "school playground" is truly sadder to consider than the classroom. It is a rectangular courtyard, surrounded by an asphalt border and lined with small round pebbles that make a high-pitched noise underfoot. Within it are lined up some lime trees, which the leaves are coated with black dust. At the bottom along the wall, are spread the "cabinets" painted in brown, administratively divided into lockers. They got sanitized, as you think, one can feel it. There is something worse than animal odors, it is the smell of disinfectants. Above, fortunately, the sky as it is, gray or blue: the administration can do nothing about it, and you should know well that it regrets it.
How do you expect teaching to be alive in such a setting?...
As I was developing my idea, the misanthrope who was reading over my shoulder, interrupted me saying, “Why do you want teaching to be alive? Why do you not want school to look like a prison? The main function of the civilized man is to do dull things with resignation. And it is not difficult if you start very young. If children were not bored at school, life would seem too hard for them when they will get out.”