This is getting beyond a joke now

[Val_2]

The manifestations contre le CPE are getting out of hand. For two days my son and his classmates have tried to go to Lycée to learn and cannot get in. What is the point of demonstating at Lycées, they don't give a monkey's uncle what happens to the kids after they have done their bit, surely they should be demonstrating in front of the Hôtel de Ville or URSSAF etc to get their point over. At this rate, no one will be sacked because they won't get a job in the first place through lack of education leading upto it...makes me bl***y mad to see all this time wasted. The kids here don't even want to be involved because damage is being done to furniture taken out as barricades and its the parents who have to pay for damages.

[Mistral]

I thought most of the people demonstrating were students and they were targetting the lycées  to get the lycéens to join the fight as well.  I agree that demonstating is one thing, stopping people from getting the education they choose is another.

On a side note; a friend's lycéen son and friends demonstated last Tuesday (the strike day) against the CPE, the just didn't realise was the CPE was and demonstrated against the Conseilleur Principal d'Education.

 

[moonraker]

On the way to another May '68?

[HLG]

Relax! It's traditional for French teens (lyceens and etudiants) to protest in order to show that they're joining adulthood, =defined culturally as the ability to defend or resist or support ideas expressed by the collectivity (ie., the Nation, or, the republic.) Remember that resistance is one of France's basic rights. :-) Participating in a protest is supposed to be an education - as long kids know why and what they're protesting. Still, you can't blame kids for joining a movement that provides endless fun (create banners with witty slogans, decorate signs, invent songs and rhymes) in a school system that provides so little.

In all likelihood, they're not demonstrating in front of the lycee as much as blockading it to convince a majority of teens to join in the protest. If the lycee's blockaded, a good solution is to join the protest and see what it's like. It's a cultural experience like no other. Afterwards, the students who wish to go to class can always claim legitimacy "I was at the protest yesterday but today I've got a really important test". :-)  In virtually all cases, they'll be allowed to enter.

It's all very media-savvy but not dangerous. It won't really affect much of their education. It happens every few years, as a sort of "ritual" for French youth.

[Val_2]

Well I rang the Lycée yesterday and they confirmed it will be shut at least until Friday and possibly next week if the kids continue. Its very worrying with exams looming shortly about what important lessons are being missed as they won't be able to re-do it again. They interviewed some of the kids in the local paper yesterday and some had no idea what it was about but just went along for the "crack" of being in a mass crowd. I still think they are protesting in the wrong place as its way out of town off the beaten track but extremely close to the main gendarmerie for quick response if trouble starts.

[The Riff-Raff Element]

[quote user="Mistral"]

I thought most of the people demonstrating

were students and they were targetting the lycées  to get the

lycéens to join the fight as well.  I agree that demonstating is

one thing, stopping people from getting the education they choose is

another.

On a side note; a friend's lycéen son and friends demonstated

last Tuesday (the strike day) against the CPE, the just didn't realise

was the CPE was and demonstrated against the Conseilleur Principal

d'Education.

 [/quote]

Reminds me of the anti-I-cannot-for-the-life-of-me-remember-what

marches the National Union of Students used to organise in the late

1980s. My friends and I really weren't that much interested: the Union

at Bristol being run by a bunch of complete gits who just saw the

various officers posts as potential springboards to a political career

- and in one case at least they were right - who really put us off

getting involved in anything. Shame really - other Unions seemed to be

much better than ours. The Union building (bars, cafés, shops, etc)

functioned well mostly due to the efforts of its underpaid permanent

employees, about whom the Union Officials were frequently extremely

rude. This microcosm was my first insight into how the World might

actually work in practice.

Our disinterest lasted until we discovered that the Union were

running "free" coaches up to London for the marches. Since we were

indirectly paying for these anyway, we felt little guilt about

clambering onboard for the trip up to the Smoke and then spending the

day in bars with friends attending institutions in London before

hopping back on the charabanc to the West Country in the early evening.

[Mistral]

[quote user="HLG"] If the lycee's blockaded, a good solution is to join the protest and see what it's like. It's a cultural experience like no other. Afterwards, the students who wish to go to class can always claim legitimacy "I was at the protest yesterday but today I've got a really important test". :-)  In virtually all cases, they'll be allowed to enter.[/quote]

Good idea in theory but my local lycée has been blocked for the last week and nobody is getting in whether they did a few marches or not.

One of my husband's old pupils turned up at his collège yesterday saying that his bac blanc has been cancelled once and is probably going to be cancelled a second time. He's getting just a bit fed up.

[quote user="jond"] the Union at Bristol being run by a bunch of complete gits who just saw the various officers posts as potential springboards to a political career [/quote]

I watched one student union rep on the news who was 26 and still a student. She had obviously put her studies on hold while she got on with being political and you could see that her aim was to move on to one of the big guns (you saw her in major discussions with Bernard Thibault)

[Mistral]

Double post the system won't let me delete- sorry

[Rob G]

Slight change of tack.......

I can't help feeling that the resistance to the CPE is somewhat automatic - i.e. people feel obliged to object to it just because it's a change to the established order and contains some bits they don't like (as does any change). I know a few students (it's a while since I was one myself), and they all assume that everyone is totally anti the CPE. Any attempt to persuade them otherwise is met with utter incredulity. Tehy've even tried to persuade me to go to their manifs!

I realise that the CPE may fall short of the long-held ideal of studying, and then immediately walking into a secure job for life. But that ideal is rapidly becoming fantasy anyway. Surely a job with some degree of uncertainty for the first two years is better than no job at all?

Rob

[SaligoBay]

[quote user="Rob G"]Surely a job with some degree of uncertainty for the first two years is better than no job at all?

[/quote]

One would think so, Rob.   But I think the previous posters were right, that striking and manifesting is just a way of life in France.  Mostly it just keeps things the way they are, so nothing changes, so they keep striking and manifesting about the same things......

Bread and circuses, that's all it is.