Joseph Lakanal

Joseph Lakanal (14 July 1762 – 14 February 1845) was a French politician, and an original member of the Institut de France. Born in Serres, in present-day Ariège, his name was originally Lacanal, and was altered to distinguish him from his Royalist brothers. He studied theology, and joined one of the teaching congregations (Pères de la Doctrine Chrétienne), and for fourteen years taught in their schools. He was professor of rhetoric at Bourges, and of philosophy at Moulins. He was elected by his native département to the National Convention of the French Republic in 1792, where he sat until 1795; Lakanal was one of the noted administrators of the French Revolution. At the time of his election, he was acting as vicar to his uncle Bernard Font (1723–1800), the constitutional bishop of Pamiers. In the convention, he sat with The Mountain and voted for the execution of King Louis XVI. Lakanal became a member of the Committee of Public Instruction early in 1793, and after carrying many useful decrees on the preservation of national monuments, on the military schools, on the reorganization of the Jardin des Plantes as the Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle, and other matters (such as the creation of the École publique des Langues Orientales vivantes), he brought forward on 26 June his Projet d'éducation nationale (printed at the Imprimerie Nationale), which proposed to lay the burden or primary education on the public funds, but to leave secondary education to private enterprise; public fêtes were also assigned specified sums, and a central commission was to be entrusted with educational questions. The project, to which Emmanuel Joseph Sieyès also contributed, was refused by the convention, who submitted the whole question to a special Commission of six, which, under the influence of Maximilien Robespierre, adopted a report by Louis-Michel Le Peletier de Saint-Fargeau (shortly before his death).