Résumé en français : Selon Peter Gumbel, le système scolaire français est répressif et humiliant, alors les systèmes scolaires anglais et américains favoriseraient la confiance en soi et la créativité.

‘They shoot schoolchildren, don’t they?’ This is the title of a book that is causing a stir in France. Its author is British, and its subject is the French education system. British journalist and lecturer Peter Gumbel has lived in France since 2002. He lectures in journalism at the Institute of Political Sciences in Paris. His interest in the education system, however, came about due to the experiences of his own children when the family moved across the channel. ‘As an outsider, you swiftly notice the differences in another country’s education system and it allows you to perhaps make a clearer evaluation of their strengths and weaknesses,’ Gumbel told the British press. Although British, Gumbel spent many years in America and his daughters went to school there. ‘At first, I thought that my concerns about the way my daughters were being taught was because we’d come from America, where schools are much more focused on encouraging confidence, encouraging creativity,’ Gumbel said. But when he spoke to other expat parents, read studies and began teaching, he realised there was ‘a genuine problem.’

And the problem he found is what is causing the stir. His book shows two very different sides to the French education system. ‘France’s education system is very thorough and challenging, so if you make it through the system, you’ll have a good education,’ Gumbel told the British press. But at the same time, he believes that the French education system makes pupils anxious and belittles their confidence. ‘The way children are taught is very much “sit down and shut up”. Interaction is not encouraged, and instead of being seen as something to learn from, mistakes are pounced upon and punished,’ Gumbel said. He believes that children do not have enough fun or the opportunity to be creative, arguing that ‘there’s very little sport, very little drama, very little team-work’. Most damaging of all, he argues, is that children are constantly told that they are worthless.

His argument is backed by studies and reports which suggest that a lot of pressure is put on French school children. These are carried out by international organisations and compare school performance and the health and wellbeing of pupils. They suggest that French pupils have a greater risk of anxiety and low self-confidence than children in other countries. One study found that four in 10 French pupils have trouble sleeping, and many have stomach-aches and headaches at least once a week. Another study found that French pupils believed themselves to be very poor readers, when in fact their ability put them high up in the survey.

Gumbel believes that the preparatory classes before university are the worst of the lot. ‘They really have it beaten out of them there. Here you have the best and smartest kids of their age group, and they are systematically humiliated and put down in the name of “preparation”,’ he told the British press. For Gumbel, it is unclear what the lasting effects of the system are. ‘But one thing I will say is that I have never met a French person who says “school was the happiest time of my life”.’