En Grève

Since the goats are still here (presumably M Cazeau is still stuck up his mountain and likely to remain so) I sent Princess 2 out to feed them. Unlike her elder sister who has always been opposed to anything with either four legs or feathers, Princess 2 used to like animals. She liked them so much she wanted to be a vet. Since then she has discovered Lord of the Rings, allowed her red hair to become very long, grown about two feet and morphed into an elf. Recently, she has also acquired an Ipod and so is now a teenage elf.
In the ‘Coldspot Dictionary of Common Usage’, which le Comte and I are compiling on those long winter evenings around the fire, ‘teenager’ is defined as ‘a person or object permanently plugged into an external media source, usually, but not exclusively, of a musical nature.’
(We have two here, the Princes having gone abroad to seek their fortunes).
And why, you may be wondering, was Princess 2 not at school on an ordinary Thursday in January, anyway? Did the French have a day off to celebrate the birthday of Saint Sebastien or whomever? Was there some obscure battle to commemorate? Not at all, simply another teacher strike.
This particular strike (pay attention, it’s important to keep up) was in protest against the ‘suppression of teaching posts’ and the forthcoming ‘Reform du Lycee’. Technology teachers, in particular, are being suppressed and it is, admittedly, difficult to see how they might be redeployed. How might one recycle a technology teacher? I imagine that’s the kind of question you might get asked in a technology exam. Sadly, in the absence of technology teachers, there will be no one, any longer, who is able to answer it.
The reform of the Lycee is a legitimate concern. The Establishment is aiming to give greater value to the non-science Baccalaureates. At present, many students take Bac Science when they actually want to be a professor of Ancient Greek (did I mention that many Lycees still teach Greek?) This is because only the Bac S is thought to be hard enough to be taken seriously. The received wisdom is as follows:
Bac Science = Geeks
Bac Economics and Sociology = Young people who hate physics but don’t smoke dope
Bac Litt = Druggies
Changing these preconceptions would be a good thing if the methods had been properly thought through. But, of course, they have not.
Apparently when the Norwegians restructured their secondary education, they did so after several years’ close consultation with teachers. The French have put together their proposals following a quick interview with a student on a bus.
Unfortunately for the teachers, who this time seem to have something genuine to protest about, the French do so much striking that it becomes hard to take it seriously. It is their reflex action, their first response. When the Crise Economique hit the news what did the French do? They took to the streets in a mass protest. Obvious, what else?
The students too, strike every spring as a matter of course. As soon as the weather warms up they start handing round pamphlets, standing on soap boxes and demanding ballots. On several instances over the past couple of years the Lycee in la Grande Ville has been completely blockaded by pupils en grève (on strike), sometimes for weeks on end. They camp out in the dustbins and growl threateningly if anyone tries to get through the school gates. Last time le Proviseur (Director) responded by taking down the perimeter fence so the gates no longer served any purpose. Every now and then the protesting students emerge from their bins and march into town carrying banners. Any banner will do, most of them are stoned and haven’t a clue what it’s all about anyway.
Sometimes le Proviseur calls the police but this august body, so fond of examining your documents and hiding round corners, limit themselves to surveillance, adamantly refusing to take the side of the oppressor against the oppressed.
The only thing that can really break the strike is a prolonged downpour, a really impressive storm. Then the students remember they have warm dry homes, declare victory and vacate their dustbins.
C’est comme ça, la France.