Hello Ed,

here are some thoughts and beginnings of analyses on the French education
system.

The French education system is in crisis. Not so much in terms of skills at the
end of high school - I don't have much numbers on this at the moment - but in
terms of values, guidelines, preparation for the future. There is a violence in
our high school like has never existed before. The pupils don't respect
much the teachers. The pupils are not capable of long concentration.

The teachers are not much respectable either.

In fact there is a surprising number of psychologically feeble teachers in
the French education system.

This comes from far in the past. Our education system was created in the second
half of the nineteenth century, under the impetus of people like Montalembert
(for the right wing) and Victor Hugo (for the left wing). Hugo said : "when you
open a school you close a jail".

At that time the country was industrialising, the teachers were "soldiers of the
Republic", their function was highly regarded and had a high social status. This
remained until roughly WWII.

Then things began to change : it is the beginning of the consumption society,
and of welfare. The period created less "real men" and "real women" : people who
knew want they wanted for their future and for their kids.

At the same time the educational function slowly lost its social recognition.
The profession became pervaded by less educated people, and less psychologically
strong and fulfledged people.

Nowadays the French educators are for the most parts people who don't know
anything else, who are not risk takers, who have a basic left wing thinking that
if you scratch the surface is in fact a culture of protecting their own
interests.

They are not models at all for the youth except models of what not to do. They
offer no values, no models, no blueprint, they are the last to understand where
the world goes, and the last to know what realistic future they want for the
planet. In fact they don't care much about the future, and they don't understand
it. And the youngsters know it.

In France at the moment we have a wave of "police oriented" "repression
oriented" governement action. To some extent this was necessary after the angel
and disconnected left. But it does not offer L.T. values and guidance (Chirac is
incapable of that).

Education is a fundamental public service, be it entirely state controled or
shared. It is the first one, since it prepares the future.

These remarks are miscellani. They are not a grand plan, not a political
program, nor the beginning of recommandations, just some thoughts and tentative
analyses.

There is a clear need for a nationwide, government driven, action along the
following lines :

- help families
- help offer values to the youth
- help reestimate the teacher function
- use more than just coercion to control the kids

There is a need for a vision, and some new credible leaders.

A.