Although eminent scientists are seldom discussed in terms of their teaching, there is nonetheless a very strong link between education and fundamental research. Yet describing a teaching approach is difficult: it acts directly on an audience through patterns that are hard to decipher and reproduce. Moreover, any such approach is suited to the spirit of its age, which may no longer be ours. Let us nevertheless attempt the exercise here and explore Laplace's role in education.
A light teaching load --------------------------------
Laplace's practical experience of teaching pupils or students amounted to very little: a few years at the École militaire de Paris when he was 20, teaching at what would now be middle-school level, and a surprising few months in Paris early in 1795, when the École normale was founded. Furthermore, from 1783 onward, Laplace served as a mathematics examiner for Engineering and Artillery; he later became a leading member of the Conseil de perfectionnement of the École polytechnique, serving from 1800 until his death twenty-seven years later. This was where every curriculum at the École was discussed; the institution formed the foundation of the meritocratic system established by the Convention. Laplace thus chaired the meeting of 12 Brumaire, Year 9, as his signature at the end of the minutes attests; among the matters discussed was the differential calculus curriculum.
At the next meeting, on 15 Brumaire, Year 9, again chaired by Laplace, an unnamed member of the Conseil de perfectionnement proposed that every candidate should "prove" his knowledge of French and Latin. The response was unequivocal:
"Although the Council fully appreciates the importance and truth of these observations, it believes that present circumstances do not permit such extensive knowledge to be required, as will become possible later, once the republican institutions of public education have had time to act effectively upon the French people as a whole. Accordingly, for the present, it has confined itself to adopting the following article, which shall be added to the curriculum and to the minutes of the previous meeting, as follows: