Charles Defodon

Charles-Jacques Defodon (14 May 1832 – 18 February 1891) was a French educationist who had great influence on primary education in France in the later part of the 19th century.

In 1864 the publisher Louis Hachette gave him the position as assistant to M. Barrau in drafting the General Manual of Primary Education.

Thus he wanted to create two schools to train the senior teaching and administrative staff of the primary education system.

Defodon was professor at the teacher training school of Auteuil (1872–79), Librarian of the Educational Museum (1879–85) and primary inspector in Paris (1885–91).

[1] Defodon was associated with the Ami de l'enfance, the organ of the French maternal educational system, which he co-edited with Pauline Kergomard.

Caroline de Barrau noted that nursery schools had been founded as an initiative of women which the state then chose to support.

Defodon wrote in a passage on "Legs" that although weak at first they gradually "acquire the firmness and strength necessary to permit him to walk ... run, and finally jump and dance.

[4] In his 1880 book of dictées Defodon told pupils: A person's profession is nothing other than the work to which one dedicates oneself in order to earn one's living.

[4] In 1881 Hachette published a new edition of François Fénelon's classic work De l'éducation des filles, annotated by Defodon.

As a Republican, Defodon rejected the emphasis that Fénelon placed on piety but accepted much of what he taught about the personality on women and their domestic role.