Recently alerted to the installation of a possible drift of the institution, here are summarized the elements of an intervention rich in lessons.
The setting
Last week, the Collège Condorcet organized a week dedicated to inclusion. At the initiative of the school's management, anticipating upcoming ministerial guidelines, the college decided to standardize the minor classes of the week, including Latin, to give a voice to an association. All fourth and third grade classes were concerned. The association invited to speak was "Le Mag+", an association founded by Omar Didi - short-lived President of the Youth Orientation Council appointed for a time by the Presidency of the Republic.
The Mag+
As we have previously shown, this association – largely financed by the State – has become known above all for its radical activism through the organisation of “non-mixed” events in breach of the rules of associative financing. For example, we recall the organisation of associative offices [https://by-night.fr/paris/soiree/espace-de-parole-racise-lgbt-permanence-non-mixte-ndeg3–458229]:
“The MAG Jeunes LGBT invites you to the third session of the discussion group racialized in non-mixed, Tuesday, November 14, 2017 from 20 p.m. to 22 p.m., 106 rue de Montreuil. This group is reserved for LGBTQIA+/queer/MOGAI people concerned by all forms of racism and Islamophobia. This non-mixed space aims to enable exchanges for people experiencing multiple discriminations, and in particular, the intersection of racism and Islamophobia with queerphobias. The weight of trivialized racism in LGBTQIA+ communities, in addition to systemic oppressions, has a heavy impact on the mental health of racialized people. This discussion group aims to allow those concerned to express their experiences and feelings, to emancipate themselves and find support.
This ad points to a URL that has now been deleted from the web, but not from Google archive results. This obsession with organizing non-mixed meetings is also included in the association's 2019 report, p. 24, a copy of which we kept before it disappeared from the digital world:
We also remember that Omar Didi was active with UNESCO where he tried to implement the same discourse [https://www.gale.info/en/news/gale/151028-omar-didi-includes-sexual-diversity-in-unesco-youth-policy]. An activist in associations, he also spoke in 2017 as a panelist alongside G. Elsa Ray of the CCIF, an association since dissolved by the State, and welcomed this joint work in the name of "intersectionality" [https://www.lefigaro.fr/vox/societe/ecole-les-theses-militantes-que-combat-blanquer-sont-promues-par-ses-services-20211129].
A great example of what not to do.
The organisation of the event raises many questions, the only positive aspect of which could be to serve in the future as a counter-example to the good practices expected of the educational institution, particularly when it concerns a very young audience.
1/ The organization of the event was very discreet, its announcement reserved for members present at the CVC meeting, without details and without discussion as to the content or the association to intervene. No message was sent to parents, except to mention a preventive action against discrimination in the broadest sense.
2/ A document sent to the office of the parents' associations mentioned the establishment of a working group bringing together representatives of the management, teachers, students and parents. A group described as having to launch a reflection on the adaptation of the campaign to each class level. No one knows what this working group is, when it met or what fruits came out of its reflections. And for good reason, it never existed.
3/ Was it necessary for these interventions to trivialize part of the courses for two weeks, for a total of 28 hours, this less than three weeks before the end of grades? What was the urgency of mobilizing students in this way during this period, knowing that at the same time interventions by SOS Racisme were adding to the cancellation of certain courses?
4/ During these meetings, the students were forbidden from keeping two questionnaires distributed, giving the interventions an unwelcome semi-confidential character, contributing to creating a climate of distrust towards the institution.
5/ Anonymous, the questionnaires included questions far removed from the stated concerns of prevention. Why then ask if: Are you? A girl, a boy, non-binary/Other gender, in question, do not wish to answer? The questionnaires specify that they are used from the 6rd in the final year, demonstrating a good adaptation to the maturity of the interlocutor. Some of the questions asked are in keeping with this.
6/ Forced by pressure from many parents, the school administration, in conjunction with the Paris rectorate, finally agreed that these meetings would no longer be mandatory. However, the school has entrusted the parents' associations with the task of informing their members. Again, no message from the school, many parents will never have known anything about the existence of these interventions, so why be offended by having omitted that they are optional?
This arbitration, which would border on illegality if the establishment were to establish lists of students whose parents are hostile to such demonstrations, is a last resort that should never happen again. It creates a situation of division between the administration and the users of the Institution and tends to set students against each other, to create unacceptable situations that could ultimately threaten the progress of weeks whose objective, on the contrary, should be the establishment of a consensus around social issues that are difficult to grasp in the lower classes of middle schools. This event is nevertheless an example of what the "inclusion days" could be in the coming years as soon as we abandon this civic education to associations outside the school world.
There is indeed a difference between educating children to respect each person's differences, and putting them in a situation where they are directly confronted with realities that are the daily lives of adults and from which the school is supposed to protect them until they have acquired the maturity to understand and analyze them.
OHere you will find the questionnaire distributed to children at the first meeting..
