Crushing student debt, private-school privilege, a housing market they can’t enter. Yet unlike their French counterparts, they have little tradition of turning that frustration into collective action. I grew up in France as a Briton, and for years I have watched my French friends do something my British ones never seem to: take to the streets.
Let’s march, let’s march!” It shouldn’t be too surprising, given the rousing lyrics of La Marseillaise, that France’s revolutionary spirit is not a relic of the past. The lycée protests in the past week have displayed the organisation and bravery of the French students. In Lens, a 15-year-old lost his hand to a police grenade during a blockade.
More than 6,000 people have been arrested, many of them under 18. Hundreds of schools across France are either blockaded or closed. These teenagers know the risks and commit to turning up anyway, day after day.
I can’t imagine that happening in Britain, so what makes the French so different? First, there’s the history. France’s republic was born of insurrection and has never forgotten it.
French pupils learn that protest, uprising and rioting are the origin story of their freedoms, so these methods are championed in promoting change. We grew up in school with the idea that if you don’t like something, you have the power to change it. The language of rights, citizenship and collective power is woven into French education.
The French Revolution appears in the curriculum twice, for pupils aged 12 and then again at 16; the student protests of 1968 are taught at age 14 and again at 17. Debating is encouraged in schools from as early as collège, or at about 11 years old. Young people are expected to have an opinion and not be afraid to defend it.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
