During the French Revolution, the confrontation of educational reform projects was a continuation of the debate inaugurated by the Encyclopedists, by translating the different points of view in public policies. On the one hand, the more progressive wing of the liberal trends proposed universal access to education to offer equal opportunities and autonomy to the individuals-citizens. Inspired by Jean-Jacques Rousseau's critics to the competitive society, other trends saw educational policies as the main instrument to fight against a culture impregnated with individualism, by privileging moral and collective training. This paper explores aspects of the debate that began in revolutionary France and its echoes among the XIXth century reformers of public education. It points out some of the current challenges for public education in what regards building an actually universal access and an autonomous knowledge that can be critical of the market determinations and to the competitive culture.
Public education; Utopia; Human rights; Democracy; Ethics