THE SCHOOLMASTER DELIVERED TO HIS PUPILS
THE SCHOOLMASTER DELIVERED TO HIS PUPILS

Summary/Abstract: Poussin’s painting captures the challenges brought about by applying blind principles in education. His painting Camille livre le mâitre d’école de Faléries à ses écoliers /Master delivered to his students, in 1637, is based on a historical case presented by Titus Livius, in Ab Urbe Condita, regarding the heroic qualities of General Camilus on one hand and the Faliscan teacher and people, in the Faleries citadel in Etruria, on the other hand. A careful reading of this painting highlights analogies between principles in education and coercive methods. The master had forced his students to be hostages and he is now being punished by being delivered to them. This painting may be a lesson on what happens when didactic principles are power-charged. On a small scale, the chaos, the conflict and the cruelty in the painting are part of the turmoil of the big history, out of the hinge and ready for war. The power without feelings sacrifices altogether schoolmasters and disciples. There is no growth and no master-disciple relationship, only a self-consuming act of justice equaled with punishment.

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