EDUCATION : The French System

      Nowadays, education is considered by a lot of people as the pillar of a nation and the roots of the future working classes, manual and intellectual. The French education system is considered to be in the top 20 of National Higher Education Systems worldwide. The modern era of French schooling was created at the end of the nineteenth century by Jules Ferry. As in every system, the education in France has advantages but also suffers from different problems.

      School in France is mandatory for all children, boys and girls, from the ages of 6 to 12 years old. The education is mostly public, which means free of charge, and it is supposed to be secular despite some scandals in its history. The French educational system is highly centralized, organized, and ramified. It is divided into three different stages : the primary, the secondary, and the higher education. At the primary and secondary levels, the curriculum is the same for all French students in any given grade, which includes public and private institutions. However, there exists specialized sections and a variety of options that students can choose. Higher education is organized into three levels or grades which correspond to those of other European countries : Bachelor, Master, and Doctorate. There is also a professional Bachelor whose objective is immediate job integration. Higher education is divided between public universities and Grandes Ecoles which admits only higher graduates.

      The French education system is clearly professionally oriented and that is one of its best advantages. For every children, the finality of every education curriculum is to find a job that they like, and have a decent quality of life. In France, the orientation starts in High School where you have to choose between different specializations as mathematic, languages, economic, and mechanics, etc. The specialization becomes more professional in College, where you really learn a job, and sometimes have the opportunity to do a in-service training in a company related to your studies. For students who don't like school or have a lot of difficulties, they can be oriented to professional studies before and during High School. Another good point for the French education system is that it is mandatory until the age of 12. It is important for every child to know how to read and write, and to have a good understanding of general culture. We have a lot of classes of History (not only French history), Geography, Music, and Art, and some of these classes are required for the High School degree.The schools are mostly public, so they are free of charge, which guarantees an education for everyone in the country.

      Paradoxically, the strengths of the French education system are also a part of its weaknesses. The schools are mostly public and free but the best ones are private and expensive. There is also a clear deficiency in foreign languages learning for every French student. When Scandinavian children start to learn languages at 4, French students start at the age of 8, and the classes are not really intensive. Although the system is professionally oriented and really good for people who know what job they want to do, there is a big problem with students who don't know what to do in their lives. The system just doesn't support them and they finish with low degrees for manual work. It is clearly one of the biggest issue of the French education system. It is absurd to create a system based on professional orientation, without giving the opportunity and the means to students to be well oriented in a job they like, according to their competences and skills. Since the early 2000's, an orientation program with advisors has been created but it is not efficient.

      Education is a very important topic in France and it is always a subject to debate in every presidential election, and the last one, the 6th of May, was not an exception. With a new president and a new socialist system, every French citizen is looking forward to see what is going to change in the near future, regarding the different issues we listed below. The lives of our children depend on it.

MEDIA : 1992 Los Angeles Riot

      Nowadays, the internet has an important role in the media world and is becoming as popular as television. The popularity of this new support of communication forced TV channels to create their own websites, and broadcast articles on them. I chose two different articles from two different TV channel websites which covered the issue of the 1992 Los Angeles riots very differently.

      For five days in the spring of 1992, Los Angeles had been the home of one of the most destructive riot in the United States history. This terrible event erupted after four policemen were acquitted in the case of Rodney King beating, despite the scene being videotaped by a neighbor. The riot began on April 29 in South Los Angeles, and the city was plunged into chaos. The entire nation was watching on television looters were breaking store windows and emptying shelves, Korean grocers were shooting with assault rifles on top of their stores, and beatings included the brutal one administered to truck driver Reginald Denny. After the Army troops came to Los Angeles, the riot slowly stopped with the Rodney King televised speech where he pleaded for peace and unity between communities.

      With the 20th anniversary this year, a lot of media have been talking about these dark days in Los Angeles history, comparing the situations now and before. Some articles explain the purpose and the reasons of the riot, trying to show what changes occurred after. The writing from ABC News is really complete and covers well the riot question. Without omitting the victims and all the horrible murders, it explains why violence erupted and not only talks about the King case. It goes deeply into details showing that the black and latino communities could not afford their treatment anymore. Their living conditions, their poor wages and their relations with the authorities were not acceptable, and it was time for them to act for their rights. The article also tries to list the benefits of the riot. It talks about the different reforms instituted in the LAPD right after the riot and the better relations between Korean and black people. It also adds that a popular strip mall was built in the neighborhood thanks to the basketball player Magic Johnson and others. However, the situation still remains unstable for people from these communities.

      Some other media keep talking about the damages and their costs, the human toll, and all the negative effects of the riot, without trying to understand. At least, they don't explain why it happened. Thereby, the FOX News' article is more focused on the victims and all the eluded cases of murder. After making a statement on the material damages, it details every of the 22 homicides remaining classified as open or unsolved. Furthermore, in order to touch the heart of the readers, it highlights the case of the 'Good Samaritan', a 15 years old boy shot on a corner during the wave of violence. We can also realize that the article employs a negative vocabulary to make the general tone darker. The way it uses words such as 'Days Of Outrage', 'brutal' or 'supposedly in the name of justice', clearly show the intention of the writer : to remind to the reader, how horrible the 1992 Los Angeles riot was.

      The racial subject is really sensitive in United States, where people seem to be really divided in race communities, and the 'black question' still remains difficult to talk about. In such a case of rioting, the medias should explain the reasons why people were acting with this violence. It does not mean we should excuse all the damages and the murders but, as a representation of the collective thinking, the media should show to those people that they have been understood.

Links :
ABC News article
FOX News article