Albertine Eidenschenk-Patin

Douai Teacher Training College

In 1905, Albertine Eidenschenk-Patin took up her post as headteacher at the Douai Teacher Training College. This would be the longest job she would have in her career, and she would be putting all her skills to good use. His daughter, Ms Jeanne Mauchaussat-Eidenschenk, best described the atmosphere that reigned there:

‘You can’t imagine how austere that college on rue d’Esquerchin was. It was practically a convent!

It was accessed via a wide avenue, with the door to the street concealed behind solid metal panels. The intention was to isolate and cloister these young girls.

Beyond the avenue lay a second gate, very beautiful, which was never closed; but the intention was there all the same.’

Several other testimonies recount observing a strict, monastic school. Albertine Eidenschenk-Patin would implement measures to make the school less strict and more pleasant for the girls who stayed there.

Firstly, the living environment was made more conducive to study. She had the school enlarged and flowers planted in the main courtyard. It was during this period that Douai’s botanical garden became the grounds of the Teacher Training College. Madame Larrivière, a former student of the college, recounts this fabulous moment:

‘I started at the Teacher Training College in 1908. [...] An event that heralded the transformations to come occurred during my first year: the wall between our playground and the ‘tree garden’ came crashing down during a history lesson. The garden was ours! In the end, the town agreed to donate it to enlarge the school.

These changes also extended to building interiors. Albertine Eidenschenk-Patin made the school’s windows transparent, as they were previously coated with lime. This let light into the dormitories, with each student getting half a window in her room. In addition, each student was allowed to arrange her own dormitory space as she wished.

One of her most notable initiatives was to do away with the hat that formed part of the uniform. As far as the headteacher was concerned, the discretion required of normal women could not be reconciled with the wearing of this eye-catching piece of ‘headgear’.

Secondly, Albertine Eidenschenk-Patin’s teaching methods were innovative. She applied the method used by her peers at the Teacher Training College in Fontenay aux Roses. She introduced what she called ‘Morning Meetings’. These took place at the start of the day, and covered a range of subjects. Students could sing, or talk about various subjects such as literature, science or women’s emancipation. Ms Mauchaussat-Eidenschenk reports her mother’s words as follows: ‘Whatever the extent of your knowledge and teaching skills, you are not a teacher if you are not concerned with the moral education of the children entrusted to you’.

It was in this spirit of moral education that Madame Eidenschenk-Patin was elected and re-elected to the Conseil Supérieur de l’Instruction Publique (High Council for Public Education) from 1909 onwards.

It was also during this period that she published the first volume of her ‘Young Girls’ Readings’. She published three between 1911 and 1913.

The Great War and the end of her career

In 1914, the men in the family went off to war. Mr Eidenschenk applied for reinstatement in the army as an interpreter. The son, Albert, was 19. He enlisted and left for the front in January 1915.

In the meantime, Albertine Eidenschenk-Patin took care of the girls studying at the college in Douai. The Girls’ Teacher Training College was occupied by the German army and had been used as a Bavarian field hospital since 1914. In 1916, she succeeded in getting a small group of college students to pass the ‘Brevet supérieur’ examinations. In 1917, she learned of her son’s death on the battlefield from wounds sustained on 22 June 1916. Here is an excerpt from her son’s last letter: ‘Remember that although I was a good soldier, I was a pacifist and wished that this terrible war would be the last. May all those who seek to realise this dream and rid humanity of this scourge be united in their efforts’ (‘Une femme de bien :Mme Eidenschenk - Patin’, La Française, 1938)

Tired out by the occupation and the news of her son’s death, she leaves Douai for Dax in the Landes region to work as a primary school inspector.

During her lifetime, Albertine Eidenschenk-Patin and her values were appreciated and honoured. After her death, this admiration continued with the creation of the Eidenschenk Foundation in 1947. The Foundation enabled college students to take part in cultural stays or summer camps. It wasn’t until 1993, shortly after the Teacher Training College was replaced by the Institut Universitaire de Formation des Maîtres (University Institute for Teacher Training), that the foundation became the Association à la Mémoire de Madame Eidenschenk et des Écoles Normales (Association in Memory of Ms Eidenschenk and the Teacher Training Colleges).

Meanwhile, on 5 December 1986, the ‘Espace Eidenschenk’ exhibition room was inaugurated at Douai Teacher Training College. Ms Brisville, then president of the Alumnae Association, began her speech with this tribute: ‘So I’m going to talk about this remarkable woman, who, thanks to her bold personality, left her mark on 21 graduating classes of Douai Teacher Training College.’

This exceptional woman has left an indelible imprint on the history of student teachers. Officer of the Legion of Honour, member of the conseil supérieur de l’Instruction civique (High Council for Civic Education), founder of the ligue internationale des mères et des éducatrices pour la paix (International League of Mothers and Educators for Peace), but beyond her distinctions and commendable role, it is the singular and innovative career of a woman of her time that we must celebrate. A woman who put women at the heart of her actions.

Notes written by Alexis Ballart