Madame de Genlis – Educator During Enlightenment and Romance

Authors

• Hannu Salmi Helsingin yliopisto
• Leena Salmi Turun yliopisto

Abstract

This article presents the work and pedagogical ideas of Stéphanie Félicité Ducrest (1746–1830), known as Madame de Genlis, especially to the Finnish audience. She was a French educator, a prolific writer and a talented harpist. Before the Revolution, she worked as the ‘governess’ of the children of Louis Philip Joseph (1747–1793), Duke of Chartres. The article focuses on her pedagogical ideas and modern teaching methods: for example, she used the magic lantern to teach history and geography, native speakers to teach foreign languages, 1:8 scale models of workshops presenting different trades and professions, and taught her pupils to observe their surroundings. The models were based on picture plates published in Diderot’s and d’Alembert's Encyclopédie, although Genlis was a devout Catholic and otherwise contested the perceived atheism of the philosophers. She was well known in Europe in her own time, but her ideas did not reach Finland, and the article reflects upon the reasons for this.