Schools in France

ABSTRACT

An inquiry revealed that French pupils are the most stressed in the world, far ahead of the Japanese. Plunged into the daily routine of four schools applying different teaching methods. From the suffering to the education of life in society, a conception of the school filmed at children’s level.

INTERVIEW OF PATRICIA BODET AND CHRISTOPHE NICK, AUTHORS-DIRECTORS
“FILMING AT CHILDREN’S HEIGHT”

Why this series after the Chronicles?

Christophe Nick : At Creil, we had had intended to realize only an introduction, even though it ended in four films. To look for the root of violence, the dysfunctions of French society, to understand why we live together and why it seems so difficult to do so for so many people in France, was our aim. The way children are educated was already at the heart of our questioning. We had spent two months in a relay-class at a school in Creil. We had followed two teachers who tried to improve the learning of four pupils who were in serious academic failure. We were not able to make a film; we didn’t have the parental consents. So, when France 2 asked me if I wanted to reattempt a total immersion. I jumped at the opportunity at once: I wanted to return to the school, to sit down among the children and follow all their lessons to understand how they learn, why some fail, what and how adults pass on information. We set ourselves two constraints: a time limit (from September 2005 to the holidays of All Saints) and that everything is shot at children’s height.

Patricia Bodet : We were not there to judge, but to look. Hence the interest was to remain long on site. Over two months of filming, it is impossible to cheat with reality. It was fascinating for the teams and for us also, to go back to school, to rediscover what made us suffer but also what motivated us to learn.

What were your criteria for choosing the four schools?

Christophe Nick : We wanted schools using a different pedagogy and sociology. Our aim was not to compare them, but identify exactly what they might have in common: a strict boarding school, a school in a PTA, a so-called alternative pedagogy and a banal school. As for the teachers, our only criterion was respect for teachers; to avoid any attempt to pass judgement or comparisons; and concentrate on observing professionals at work, get to the heart of issues.

Patricia Bodet : Browsing the different levels, from CP to the 6th, also allowed us to avoid frontal opposition within the schools and understand how children evolve during a school cycle. Personally, what I was passionate, not so much about what was being taught, but about the personal methodology of each teacher.

How did the shooting take place?

Patricia Bodet : At every school, there was a team of four people: a journalist, a chief of operation’s, a sound engineer and a special addition for this project, an editor who "spliced" images during filming and sent them to us. We were in permanent contact with each team, depending on what was developing, on a daily basis. We worked in total harmony.

Christophe Nick : The members of the teams were really able to blend into the scenery of the class. They were in total empathy with the subject. When children went to the blackboard, they were afraid of the blackboard, not of the camera!

The children are rather endearing….

Christophe Nick : Frankly, the philosophy workshop from the second day in Montpellier, I could not believe it! We were at first surprised by what we were filming. To see that, among all these children, kids from PTA are more fulfilled, more open and more alert. That was extraordinary! In contrast, there is little Lola. Her case sums up the problem of the traditional school. This is a smart girl, sensible, enlightened, who has no problem. But those qualities are the difference and this makes her a problem within the school. In the end, she faces ostracism of her whole class …

How has your investigation progressed?

Patricia Bodet : The series has been slow to find its final form. Initially, we were focused on a principle of episodes, with a grid of thirty themes for each film crew. The three documentaries were made gradually as work progressed, closely following the material that we had recorded.

Christophe Nick : Fairly quickly, we were struck by the notion of suffering and we treated this as such in the first film. The second documentary focuses on a theme that concerned us from the beginning: the socialization of children. How do the relationships between students go on? What does it mean to be at odds with one’s environment? The idea of the third film has taken more time to emerge. It was to get more immersed within the material because although fundamentally, the question appears in each scene: beyond teaching what is educating?