National Education is definitely remarkably inventive. Any other institution would eventually tire out anger. Not her. Last January, a high school student was excluded from his public establishment (Aix-Marseille academy) for having asked a question of a historical nature to his history teacher. He publicizes the affair: three million views on Twitter, a million on TikTok, a considerable amount of teacher testimonies, and everything happens as if nothing had happened. Mind-boggling, but iconic.
Let this forum therefore borrow from the fable.
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Jules is a good guy. School application, courtesy, beautiful expression. His mother, a housekeeper, raises him alone. He is also a teenager attentive to political ideas, his own tending towards the right, but who shows a certain militant maturity. On social networks, he expresses his positions, rightly, as an average citizen. At school, he sticks to the expected role, that of the student.
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While his history class discusses the notion of genocide, a question arises. A legitimate question because it is sincere, a historical and memorial controversy which naturally finds its place in the small high school space-time of the day. Everyone agrees that the Vendée massacre was massive, but was it a question of suppressing the rebellion or of systematically eliminating an entire population? In a word, was it a “genocide”? Failing to provide the answer here, we can however recall that Gracchus Babeuf, a figure of the French Revolution, speaks on this occasion of “populicide”, of “plebeicide”. We can also observe that this question sheds light on the way in which History is written, the way in which it is commemorated and, above all, the way in which it is taught.
Indeed, at the end of the lesson, anxious to avoid any scandal, Jules goes to his teacher: “ Would it not be justified to speak of a “Vendean genocide”? “. Who else can you turn to with confidence? The interlocutor loses his temper. She threatens him. No students like him » in his classes, no question. Jules was genuinely interested in his subject, but Jules is a “ denier ».
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There are two kinds of students today. Those who insult and hit. And then those, like Jules, who withdraw, disappointed but respectful. At the end of the day, we let him know that he will be heard by management. A meeting in which the complainant will not participate, and where the principal will put the eternal “fascist” stamp on this juvenile front. It’s almost a fable. A cruel fable which tells, in a few words, the deleterious mechanics of National Education. And then comes the moral…
Jules, who is not invited to defend himself, receives a temporary dismissal for “undermining the values of the Republic”. The young man decides to leave the establishment to complete, alone, the preparation for his baccalaureate. But the damage is done, because the exclusion relationship will close many doors to him in higher education. Jules will struggle to get rid of his imaginary crime. No social elevator for someone who thinks badly because he reads too much. The “mammoth” opposes it with all its weight.
No question, however, harms the Republic. On the contrary. It is the worried silence of dictatorial atmospheres that we must fear. Feigned respect in the face of a conviction that we do not share. Or that we don’t understand. If teachers fear the deployment of ideas deemed bad, assuming that the desire to instruct is sincere, it seems necessary to make the course enclosure sacred. Let things be said, opinions exposed, discussed, errors corrected, tensions lifted.
Jules’ story is a fable because it is symbolic: Jules is disturbing because he is too quiet. In France, students effectively contesting the values of the Republic are legion. Dozens of thousands. In certain neighborhoods, they form the overwhelming majority of certain classes. These are cuddled. We lecture them with a smile, we cover our ears. The Republic wipes up the spit and readily forgives this noisy childishness.
In fact, National Education is being carried away by the force of inertia. It is a mass that drifts without opposing force. Claude Allègre spoke of a mammoth to describe the administration, but the metaphor also encompasses ideological heaviness. We simply need to prevent conformism from turning into nastiness.
If the contours of school bullying are notoriously complex to trace, Jules’ case is clear. For several months already, Jules had been paying the price for militant attitudes less subtle than his own. Verbal confrontations, provocations, physical threats: a gang of antifas had spotted him, and the management, through its silence, made itself complicit with the attackers… Once taken aback, moreover, by the teaching team, it The imaginary thug was done with it. Let him get out. Good riddance.
Unable to raise his hand in class, he chose to stand up straight. Jules is courageous, he is dignified, he speaks clearly. His path will be more beautiful far from ignoble sectarianism.
The public school has other fish to keep safe.
2024-03-02 19:30:28
#guy #mammoth #Vendée
