“The teaching of history is unbearable for Islamists”

2023-10-19 11:43:48

The cross : How do you react, as a historian, to the Arras attack?

PaBoucheron trick: First of all, I react like a human being, fraternally, because any terrorist act hurts all of humanity. This elementary reaction was sometimes terribly lacking after the Hamas attack a few days earlier, and it is still lacking today, when faced with horror some first seek to take out their flag. Using simple words is a way of creating the possibility of a thought.

What thoughts do you have for history teachers?

P. B. : I have never taught history in secondary schools, but I believe in the unwavering solidarity of this profession. Gaëlle Paty recalled this very well in The cross, the day after the murder of his brother, Samuel Paty was a “researcher in history”, and we must defend this link between research and teaching, attacked from all sides today. As a public historian, I can measure my words, allow time to remain silent. Many of my teaching colleagues do not have this choice: they were in front of their students the day after the tragedy. Devastated, angry, feeling isolated and threatened.

However, they had to find the words and confront everything that this attack stirs in these adolescents: fear, anger and incomprehension, and for some provocation. We must measure the exorbitant expectations that society has for these teachers. Ask a word of an adult and of authority, and not authoritarian, a word which will give rise to others, which we will have to welcome, including those which we do not understand and which legitimately offend us. This is extremely difficult and requires time, much more time than is given.

Why have history teachers become targets?

P. B. : History and geography teachers are responsible, sometimes reluctantly, for “telling the Nation”. From this point of view, they appear as “teachers squared” in short. However, Samuel Paty taught history with humanity, without imposing anything, because he knew that to liberate consciences, we must first recognize and respect them. He died for this. And if we must be careful about the current investigation, it is the same crime against intelligence that was committed in Arras. These two attacks show that the teaching of history is unbearable for many, especially Islamist terrorists.

How does history fundamentally oppose the dogmas of Islamists?

P. B. : There is a first answer in terms of disciplines. Moral and civic education is mainly taught by history and geography teachers. Because we believe that they are better trained to “historicize” the values ​​of the Republic and not just assert them. But the tragedy is that in the minds of the opponents of the Republic, they are the spokespersons for these values, and in particular for secularism.

Because the teaching of religious facts is another French specificity: we must stand firm on the non-competition between this historical discourse and that of religion. But we also have to be realistic. Faced with the confessional beliefs of young Muslims, some teachers succeed, some less so, and others dodge or give up.

I would also like to say that the insistence on secularism as a teaching subject is quite recent, it dates mainly from the 2010s. Jules Ferry’s school practiced secularism, which we must remember is imposed on States and not to individuals, but did not organize specific teaching. And in recent years, secularism has been exploited in an aggressive manner, with this intransigent republicanism putting our colleagues in difficulty.

How to teach secularism?

P. B. : Let us say it forcefully, a history lesson on secularism cannot be a catechism. What we must reaffirm today is freedom of expression, critical thinking, and the fact that we do not weaken attachment to republican values ​​by recalling their history. To say that the demand for secularism is recent is not to prepare to renounce it. Our society, our national cohesion, has nothing to fear from the exercise of history. On the other hand, we will not defend ourselves from the jihadist danger through dogmatic teaching.

I add that critical thinking is not a destructive mind, it can be completely respectful of consciences and beliefs. It took a long time for the Catholic Church to realize that it had nothing to fear from history. And even today, in the United States, life sciences professors can be confronted with pressure from creationist theories. Let us repeat: profane knowledge is not knowledge that destroys religion.

What is it about history teaching that allows us to resist violence?

P. B. : History is an art of emancipation. Not in what it proclaims, but in what it practices: working on documents, practicing understanding the other’s point of view, grasping the historical depth of phenomena… Teaching is addressing to singular intelligences and not lecturing to form a collective of good citizens.

Let’s take another example: the legacy of the Enlightenment, whose ambiguity historians show us, is less a set of precepts than a collection of problems. It’s so much more interesting to tell the story this way!

You write, inRemaining timewhich has just been published in Seuil: « History as a discipline is in no way weakened by exposing its uncertainties. » Is this also what makes it unbearable to fanatics?

P. B. : History is exposed knowledge. To criticism, sometimes to threats. And history is always a situated narrative, which does not necessarily mean subjective or committed. This means that the historian addresses others with his uncertainties and doubts. The beauty of the exercise of history is this fragility which consists of saying: what I am going to tell you cannot be reduced to the regime of opinion, I have worked, I have respected the rules of a method, I aim for the truth of the fact and the interpretation – against all relativism -, but it’s me who tells you that. Then, we can discuss it, but within the limits defined by this regime of truth.

His only goal? Emancipate consciences. “Defatalize” the constraints that weigh on our lives. But for this, the teacher must seek, deep within himself, something sincere, a force of intimate conviction. What is overwhelming is that Dominique Bernard, in a sort of companionship with Samuel Paty, adopted this humanist attitude. Both were bridges. And always, those who want civil war do not target the vociferous, they destroy the bridges. So, even if fear grips us, we must hold on.