FRANCE 2 – TUESDAY OCTOBER 18 AT 9.10 P.M. – DOCUMENTARY
“There are as many ways to tell about school as there are French people”, warns Roschdy Zem in the commentary. On such a subject, as exciting as it is passionate, it is reassuring to recognize the voice of the actor with a remarkable career: the first child born in France in a family of five, in Gennevilliers (Hauts-de-Seine), of a father Moroccan living in the slum of Nanterre, and a mother for whom the academic success of her four sons and her daughter is decisive; but also a schoolboy to whom the high school of Drancy (Seine-Saint-Denis) said that“There was no room for [lui] »despite his correct grades, he confided to the Monde, January 15, 2016: “It was the violence of the time. »
Director Stéphane Corréa chose 1833 as the starting point, the year in which each commune in France was, for the first time, required to open a primary school. In question, an inglorious state of affairs: “Nowhere else in Europe do children work so young”i.e. 4 years in the fields and 8 years in the workshops.
The commentary insists on a few key characters, such as Louise Michel or Jules Ferry
Like a good lesson, this history of nearly two hundred years of the French school combines relaxation, with anecdotes from personalities or teachers, and instruction, through storytelling and archives. With the fight against inequalities as a red thread: in 1910, 1% of French students in high schools (paying) had the baccalaureate; in 2021, the pass rate is 93.7% and the school is a common experience.
The commentary emphasizes a few key characters. Like the teacher Louise Michel (1830-1905), who joined the Paris Commune in 1871 – it was the Communards who invented the word “laïcité”; Jules Ferry (1832-1893), of course, but also Ferdinand Buisson (1841-1932), follower of a joyful school; later, René Haby (1919-2003), who carried out the reform of the colleges wanted by Valéry Giscard d’Estaing (1926-2020) in 1975 – even if it meant omitting the demonstrations that resulted from it; François Mitterrand (1916-1996), who launched ZEPs (priority education zones), but had to give up abolishing free schools, given the scale of the demonstrations (one million people in Paris) in 1984.
Passion communicative
Numerous, the forty-five contributors best embody the diversity of each person’s relationship to school, from “wonderful memories” from the physicist Etienne Klein to the hell lived by the actor Franck Gastambide, archetype of the “dunce” (the one who, like the crab, does not walk straight). Between the two, Daniel Pennac, Nagui, Edwy Plenel, or even Martin Fourcade, Olympic multi-medallist in biathlon, who discovered skiing thanks to the green classes and, at the same time, obtained… 2 out of 20 in sport at the baccalaureate!
We would forget certain more delicate themes, such as respect for teachers or secularism.
The feelings differ. Actress Ariane Ascaride was told: “You, where you come from, you can’t understand” ; conversely, the school allowed Samuel Joshua, a university professor, to come out of his condition: “In maths, I was not the poor kid: I was at the top of the class. »
All the teachers show passion for their profession, to the point that it becomes communicative and that we forget certain more delicate themes, such as respect for the teaching staff or secularism. Two years after the death of Samuel Paty, on October 16, 2020, history and geography professor killed for showing a caricature of Muhammad published by Charlie Hebdo to its students, the latest surveys show an increase in attacks on secularism in schools.
Stories of a nation: the school, documentary by Stéphane Corréa (Fr., 2022, 2 x 60 min). Followed by a debate presented by Julian Bugier, as part of a special evening. Available in replay on France.tv.