''La Ligue de l'enseignement'' was initially conceived and created by the journalist

Jean Macé Jean François Macé (22 August 1815 in Paris – 13 December 1894 in Monthiers) was a French educator, journalist, active freemason and politician. He was perhaps best known as the founder of Ligue de l'enseignement to promote free, universa ...

, on 15 November 1866. It was advocated for by liberal press, as public,

free Free may refer to: Concept * Freedom, having the ability to do something, without having to obey anyone/anything * Freethought, a position that beliefs should be formed only on the basis of logic, reason, and empiricism * Emancipate, to procur ...

, compulsory and

secular education Secular education is a system of public education in countries with a secular government or separation between religion and state. An example of a secular educational system would be the French public educational system, where conspicuous relig ...

. A congress convened in 1881, which gave La Ligue its federal form. In 1925, after

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

, La Ligue decentralized in order to create even greater access for the public needs. Midway through

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, in 1942, the league dissolved. In a re-founding convening congress in 1945, La Ligue deepened its involvement in

secularism Secularism is the principle of seeking to conduct human affairs based on secular, naturalistic considerations. Secularism is most commonly defined as the separation of religion from civil affairs and the state, and may be broadened to a si ...

and the

humanities Humanities are academic disciplines that study aspects of human society and culture. In the Renaissance, the term contrasted with divinity and referred to what is now called classics, the main area of secular study in universities at th ...

. To date it remains a member of the European Humanist Federation and the

International Humanist and Ethical Union Humanists International (known as the International Humanist and Ethical Union, or IHEU, from 1952–2019) is an international non-governmental organisation championing secularism and human rights, motivated by secular humanist values. Foun ...

References

Educational organizations based in France European Humanist Federation Humanist associations Freedom of expression organizations {{France-stub