Why do you teach? “Because education is in my blood” (4/4) – Liberation

“At the beginning of the year, I never lead wide”

Françoise Cahen, 51, literature teacher in a high school in the violence prevention zone in Alfortville (Val-de-Marne), has been teaching since 1993.

“Why am I teaching? Well because it’s a job where you can share. It’s also a personal story, linked to my family: my grandmothers, who were at the top of the class and who were sent to look after very young cows; my father who was forced to take over the farm when he would have liked to continue his studies. It is with hindsight that I analyze it like that today, I do not think I was aware of it when I made this choice.

“A teacher in fourth was decisive, Mr. Mongin, and thanks to him I had a flash. He made me discover literature with a capital L. We read incredible things like Solzhenitsyn, Yourcenar. Without this crazy ambition, I might not have become a teacher.

“Then, I love books, it’s a passion, so it’s about making people love what you love, to advance a certain conception of literature. Finally, there is also an intellectual dimension to my job. My own research and my teaching are nourished, both on the disciplinary side and on the pedagogical side.

“The class, every year, is an adventure. Nothing is ever won. It’s not a comfortable job: there, I have bottles but at the beginning of the year, I never lead off, I always wonder how it will happen. We try to live with shocks…

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