College Georges-Clemenceau (Nantes)

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The college Georges-Clemenceau , in general called college Clemenceau simply, is a French of mainstream education and technological, secondary and higher establishment, located street Georges Clémenceau at Nantes (Loire-Atlantique), near the station and of the botanical garden.

It accommodates approximately 800 high-school pupils and 900 pupils of preparatory classes, and has a boarding school accommodating mainly pupils of Preparatory classes and the high-school pupils of section TMD (Technique of the Music and Dance, in the past F11).

History

Current Lycée Clemenceau was a long time the only college of Nantes and the department of Loire-Inférieure (become Atlantique in 1957). On several occasions, he played a considerable part in the history of the town of Nantes and even in the evolution of secondary education in France.

Difficult beginnings

Created by a decree of the First Consul 1st Vendémiaire year XII (September 24th, 1803), the college of Nantes, which bears today the first name of Clemenceau, opens its doors only on April 1st, 1808. Installed in the buildings of an old convent of the Ursulines and seminar of Nantes, it succeeds a " Centrale" school; founded in 1796. Its first headmaster is Jean-Baptiste Mas, former critic of the college of Limoges. He counts 212 pupils (including 150 interns, the majority stock-brokers) when Napoleon 1st in person comes to visit the establishment on August 9th, 1808. In the middle of an area where the Catholic church remains particularly influential, it undergoes as of its beginnings a sharp competition of local denominational teaching where are sent the children of the aristocracy and a good part of those of the Nantes middle-class. After the fall of the Empire, the college, reconverted in " college royal" , is taken again in hands by the new mode and the Church, headmastership being entrusted to the former chaplain of the establishment. Regarded by the notable buildings as Bonapartist or republican, the royal college, under the Restoration, is highly attacked by the Ultraroyalists who ask for his suppression straightforwardly. Very serious disorders, sometimes related to those of other establishments of Paris (Louis-the-Large) or of province (Rennes), thus agitate the Nantes college of 1814 to 1822.

The first " prépas" from France

The establishment knows however a Net rectification in the following years under the headmastership of the Demeuré abbot: it is him which, in particular, " invente" as of 1824 the first " preparatory classes at the Universities " , experiment included thereafter in many colleges under the name of " course spéciaux". At the end of the Monarchy of July, under the direction of Jean-Baptiste Julien (future headmaster of Henri IV and Louis-the-Large), the royal college of Nantes is particularly flourishing. In spite of the sharp competition of the religious establishments, it counts in 1845-46 nearly 650 pupils among whom Jules Verne and Jules Vallès which, in the Child and the Graduate , draws a picture not always flattering of its professors and their teaching.

New difficulties

The Révolution of 1848 causes a certain agitation in the establishment (which becomes again college), just as " the Boutteville" business; , a professor revoked under the pressure of the local clergy for the publication of an opuscule entitled First sermon of a layman . After the law Falloux, the college (again " impérial" in 1852) fall under the double monitoring from the prefect and the Church who return the difficult life to him. It then counts among its pupils the future Général Baker, Tristan Corbière and Georges Clémenceau. Under the III éme Republic, in spite of the opening of an appendix (the future college Jules Verne) in the center town in 1880, the old college, not managed always well, vegetates somewhat. Its outdatedness is such as it entirely should be rebuilt at the end of the years 1880. It is however in this establishment that in 1886 the first school sports association of France is created, a few years before the large Parisian colleges (Lakanal and Janson-le-Sailly in 1889, the others in 1890). Several pupils of these years will become later famous: the writer Charles Goffic, the painter Maxime Maufra and Aristide Briand.

The Revival

Fallen with less than 500 pupils at the end of the years 1880, and seriously competed with by the religious colleges, the college knows as from 1890 a true resurrection thanks to… an ecclesiastic, the Follioley abbot. Last priest-headmaster of a college of State in France, it was named at this station by the Ministre for the State education, the Bourgeois radical, to go up the establishment. Inaugurating the new buildings in October 1892, the Follioley abbot regenerates the college which doubles its manpower in less than four years, obtaining excellent results with the various contests of the Universities.

This rebirth does not make the deal of the local clerical mediums which publish against the college a vigorous lampoon entitled the sin of Nantes . It is under the headmastership of the Follioley abbot that a young professor begins from letters, Edouard Herriot and that the pupil Jules Grandjouan makes his first drawings. At the time of the retirement of the priest-headmaster, in 1898, the Nantes establishment became one of most flourishing of France. This prosperity continues until the First World War, the college celebrating with ostentation its first centenary in 1908 and opening new an appendix with Chantenay in 1911. He hardly knows but some movements in 1913, caused by the publication of a small review non conformist written by some pupils of which Jacques Vaché (the future friend of André Breton). In spite of the attacks of the Nantes catholic press, the college keeps its notoriety and its manpower which oscillate of 1000 to 1100 pupils. Among them, one counts the day before the war André Morice, future minister and mayor of Nantes like Olivier Messiaen.

From one war to another

The Great War disorganizes the college which must shelter a military hospital and accommodate many refugees, among which Paul Nizan, the future historian Victor Tapié and the future biologist Jean Bernard. As of on November 14th, 1918, the municipality requires of the government to give the name of Georges Clémenceau to the college, wish ratified on February 4th, 1919. " Tigre" in person comes to inaugurate the war memorial of its old establishment on May 27th, 1922. April 26th, 1931, it is André Tardieu which will inaugurate in the main courtyard of the college a medallion in its honor. In the years 1920, the college of Nantes belongs to some establishments which make pilot experiments within the framework of international exchanges, creating a " section danoise" who will function of 1922 to 1930. Then attend the establishment of the pupils like the future mathematician Jean Leray, Louis Poirier (more known under its name of writer Julien Gracq) or Morvan Lebesque. The life of the college in years 1930 is well-known for us by the memories of one of its former students, the poet Rene-Guy Cadou. Among the teachers of this period is distinguished a young person aggregate from history, Jean Bruhat, future professor in the Sorbonne. The fame of the establishment, which is based in particular on its good performances with the baccalaureat and the contests, again inflates manpower which reach more than 1500 pupils in 1939. Invested mainly by the German army in June 1940, the college knows during the second world war a difficult life. In spite of the prohibition of the occupying authorities, pupils organize a patriotic demonstration in front of the war memorial of the college on November 11th, 1940. Evacuated after the great bombardments of Nantes of September 1943 (which do not save the establishment), the college can reopen its doors only on November 20th, 1944. It is one of its professors, the historian Jean Philippot, who is elected mayor of Nantes to the Release.

The contemporary time

Since 1945, the Clemenceau College knew many transformations and was sometimes shaken by serious events. It loses its appendices " Jules Verne" and " Chantenay" in 1957, then " Colinière" in 1968. He sees closing his primary classes gradually (as from 1960), then its first cycle of secondary education (as from 1966). As much of establishments, it undergoes a strong school dispute and political agitation between 1968 and 1973, year of introduction of co-education into this old man " college of garçons". The boarding school, which was a long time the statute of many high-school pupils, relates to now only one small number of pupils of the preparatory classes… Among the innovations of this time, let us quote only creation as of school year 1948-49 of a film club rested by a professor of Lettres, Pierre Ayraud, author with Pierre Boileau of detective novels under the name of Thomas Narcejac. The wear of time being felt on the " Bahut" old man; (title of the bulletin of Friendly of the Former students of the college), of great renovation works are undertaken: a first section in the years 1970, another, much the most important, in the years 1990. By their modern architecture, they contrast with the buildings of the XIX° century, which somewhat changes the overall aspect of the establishment. Each year, the college enorgueillit of its good performances to the baccalaureat and the various entrance examinations at the Universities, integrating on several occasions the major of promotion there. With its some 1700 pupils, including nearly 750 " prépas" , the Clemenceau College of Nantes is ready to face the XXI° century without complex.

He is regarded by the high-school pupils of the Nantes suburbs as accommodating the scientific elite of the downtown area (the college Guist' Hau accessible, according to these same high-school pupils, the literary elite).

The restoration

August 1st The college underwent a restoration which was completed in 2003.

Former students

Writers

Politicians

Painters

Musicians, dancers, scenario writers & actors

Industrialists & Engineers

  • Louis Amieux (canner)
  • Ernest Cassegrain (canner)
  • Thomas Dobrée (ship-owner)
  • Eugene Dubigeon (engineer)
  • Leon Jost (industrial)
  • Lefèvre-Useful Louis (industrial in cookie factory)
  • Alphonse Lotz-Brissonneau (engineer)
  • Arsene Saupiquet (canner)
  • Constant Say (refiner)

Doctors

Soldiers

See too

Internal bonds

  • School
  • Education system French

External bond

  • the official site of the college Clemenceau

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