Académie commerciale ou collège classique ? L'enseignement secondaire des garçons dans un débat des années 1920

Abstract

Written in an effort to rethink “classical” college, this article examines the controversy concerning the education of boys in the 1920’s. In a context influenced by the economic minority of French-speaking people, the assertion of the nationalist movement and the initiatives of the teaching Brothers to develop a public high school system, a threat towards the model of the humanities and the type of masculinity that they proposed was felt. A polarisation of the influences in the field of education took place and along with it, the conditions for a “traditional college” were established.