One shall neither strike nor caress children. They shall be taught what is good, one shall leave them
to nature.
He who strikes a child shall be banned.
Children shall be dressed in canvas in all seasons. They shall sleep on mats and be asleep for eight
hours.
They shall be fed together and shall only live on roots, fruits, vegetables, dairy, bread and water.
T
eachers of the children from five to ten years shall not be younger than sixty, and shall be elected
by the people among those who have obtained the scarf of old age.
The education of children from ten to sixteen years shall be military and agricultural.
They shall be distributed into companies of sixty. Six companies form a battalion. Every month, the
teachers shall appoint a chief among those who are conducted best.
The children of a district form a legion. They shall come together every year in the capital, [for] the
feast day of youth. They camp and make all the exercises of infantry there, in purposely prepared
arenas.
They also learn the manoeuvres of the cavalry and all developments of the military.
They shall learn languages.
They are distributed into labourers in the harvest time.
From sixteen to twenty-one, they shall enter the crafts and choose a profession which they exert
among labourers, in factories or on ships.
All children retain the same garb up to sixteen; from sixteen to twenty-one, they will have the
workman's suit; from twenty-one to twenty-five, the one of the soldier, if they are no judges.
They can only acquire the costume of the arts after crossing, before the eyes of people, a river by
swimming [through] it, [on] the day of the celebration of youth.
From twenty-one to twenty-five, citizens who aren't magistrates enter the national militia, married or not.
T
eachers of children up to sixteen are selected by the directories of districts, and confirmed by the general
committee of the arts appointed by the government.
Labourers, manufacturers, artisans, [and] traders are teachers.
Young men of sixteen are required to stay with [their] teachers up to twenty-one, scarcely being denied
the right of citizenship during their lifetime.
There shall be, in each district, a special commission of arts, which will be consulted by teachers and will
give public lectures.
The schools will be equipped with a part of the biens nationaux.
This might perhaps be a kind of a proper instruction to the French [people], that societies of children,
presided by a magistrate who would point out the topics and direct the discussions, in order to form the
direction, the soul, the mind and the heart.
Girls shall be brought up in their maternal home.
In the holidays, a virgin shall not appear in public, after ten years, without her mother, her father, or her
guardian.
2. On affections
Every man aged twenty-one is obliged to declare in the temple who are his friends. This declaration must
be renewed every year, during the month of Ventôse.
If a man leaves a friend, he is obliged to explain the reasons before the people in the temples, on the
appeal of a citizen or of an older [one]; if he refuses, he is banned.
Friends cannot write their commitments; they cannot submit them.
Friends shall be placed near each other in battle.
Those who remained united throughout their lives shall be buried in the same grave.
Friends shall mourn one another.
The people shall elect the tutors of children among the friends of their father.
If a man commits a crime, his friends are banished.
Friends dig the grave, prepare the funeral of one another; alongside children, they sow flowers during the
burial.
He who says he does not believe in friendship, or who has no friends, shall be banned.
A man convicted of ingratitude shall banned.