Education and Academic Career in France
In 1705 young Richard was sent to the English College at Douai (France) on a sort of scholarship, entering the English College on 29 July.
He was to spend the next twenty-five years there, first as student, then as professor, and as vice-president of the university of Douai. At the age of twenty-one he was chosen to teach the classes of rhetoric and poetry, which were the two senior classes in the humanities.
He graduated with a bachelor's degree in divinity from the University of Douai in 1719, and was appointed professor of philosophy, a post which he held for eight years. At this period, though it was no longer necessary to have aliases, he was known by his mother's surname of Willard. His nickname was "Book".
Ordained a priest at Tournai on 28 March 1716, in 1720 he was chosen by the president, Robert Witham, to be his vice-president, an office which involved the supervision of both professors and students. At the same time he was appointed professor of theology and prefect of studies, so that he had the direction of the whole course of studies.
Though in 1727 he defended his public thesis and obtained a doctorate in divinity, Challoner's success as a teacher was probably due rather to his untiring industry and devotion to this work than to any extraordinary mental gifts. He was not considered an original thinker, but his gift lay in enforcing the spiritual reality of the doctrines he was expounding.
Read more about this topic: Richard Challoner
Famous quotes containing the words education and, education, academic, career and/or france:
“Human history becomes more and more a race between education and catastrophe.”
—H.G. (Herbert George)
“In England, I was quite struck to see how forward the girls are made—a child of 10 years old, will chat and keep you company, while her parents are busy or out etc.—with the ease of a woman of 26. But then, how does this education go on?—Not at all: it absolutely stops short.”
—Frances Burney (1752–1840)
“If we focus exclusively on teaching our children to read, write, spell, and count in their first years of life, we turn our homes into extensions of school and turn bringing up a child into an exercise in curriculum development. We should be parents first and teachers of academic skills second.”
—Neil Kurshan (20th century)
“Clearly, society has a tremendous stake in insisting on a woman’s natural fitness for the career of mother: the alternatives are all too expensive.”
—Ann Oakley (b. 1944)
“In France one must adapt oneself to the fragrance of a urinal.”
—Gertrude Stein (1874–1946)