Educating the Faithful

"Curtis reveals how Catholic primary schooling during the nineteenth century helped to lay the groundwork for transforming France into a modern industrial nation. Focusing on Lyon, the Rhone, and the industrial Loire Valley - the most populated regions outside Paris - she finds persuasive evidence that religious teaching orders created the school structures and culture necessary for the modern educational system.".

"Drawing on archives of the teaching orders themselves, as well as on diocesan and Vatican archives, Curtis explores the establishment of schools, teacher training and placement programs, and curriculum development. She argues that decisions about schooling were driven by pragmatic as well as ideological considerations. She also examines two interrelated issues: the feminization of Catholicism and the education of girls."--BOOK JACKET.