“And if we sang, just with a good heart (…). If we sang, without taking the lead (…). » Santa Hurel, music teacher, found the right song for his class of 6e on this Monday, March 14, the day that marks the entry into force of the end of the obligation to wear a mask at school. “Sing with a Bright Face”, she asks her students at the Saint-Exupéry college in Paris who live their first day without a mask in the establishment. Of the twenty or so students, only a few still wear it. The teacher expresses her relief. Teaching music with a mask was a challenge: difficult to know if the students were really singing or even if they were listening well. College students also savor this moment, even if they find the situation « bizarre ». “We got used to it, we feel almost naked without the mask”assure in chorus Shaynez, Corentin and Raphaël.
The principal, Colette Chiche, informed the 340 families of the college of the new terms of the health protocol on Friday March 11. So, on this Monday, March 14 in the morning, seeing who is masked or not has all of a « surprise ». Among the students, there are those who happily removed it to “can finally breathe” like Corentin in 6e ; those who keep it “a little more time to get used to this new configuration”like Lya, student of 3e ; and those who put it under their nose or just on their chin, as if they couldn’t choose yet. The vast majority have chosen to remove it and depending on the class, the proportion of masked students varies from a few units to almost a third. The group effect seems to be in play. It is enough for a student to keep her mask for her friends to keep it too.
The feelings are ambivalent. Theo was afraid of having an hour of glue when he came to college without the precious stuff on Monday morning. Like him, the students are delighted to no longer risk reprimands from teachers for a badly put on mask. On the other hand, the small arrangements with the rules come to an end today: chewing gum in class or simply chatting discreetly turned out to be easier with the mask on than without.
“Without a mask, you can be ugly”
At the first recess of the morning, it is the faces of the teachers that focus the conversations. “I imagined her older, the music teacher”comments a student of 6e. “I didn’t realize he had such a full beard, the math teacher “Says another. If the teenagers had already become acquainted with the physiognomy of their comrades in the playground or in the canteen, many see the faces of their teachers for the first time.
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