Secular republican pedagogy was transplanted directly into colonial schools.

Evidence

The Government General likewise set its sights on inculcating in all Africans the same rational outlook that permeated metropolitan educational efforts. The guiding principles of universal primary instruction in France were that it be secular and, in the words of the educational expert, P. Lapie, “practical and educational” (utilitaire et educatif). These principles informed Guy’s and Roume’s approach to education overseas. The ecole franr-aise in West Africa was made lafque, Roume explained, because of the religious neutrality of the Third Republic; children, he added optimistically, would only come more willingly when they did not have to fear proselytization. Similarly, the centerpiece of the Republic’s new scientific pedagogy, the ler-on des chases, was at the core of Dakar’s approach to education. — Alice L. Conklin, A Mission to Civilize_ The Republican…, 281

Categorization

• XREF: Direct instance of republican ideas (secularism, leçon de choses) being imposed on West Africa — exactly the reader’s research interest.