“Je suis nul!”
Until reading the other day about a new critique of French education, I hadn’t thought of that self-denigrating little expression much since I taught English to high-school and college students in Aix-en-Provence almost 25 years ago. It translates, more or less, into “I’m useless!” – and I heard it pretty often from my pupils as a rueful commentary on their spoken English. Perhaps the words aren’t so different from those uttered by students around the world grappling with a new language.
But I got a glimpse of the expression’s particular connection to French educational attitudes when I was introduced to a class of 10th graders at the start of the school year and one struggled to get out a few words in English. “Oh, he’s not very good,” the teacher told me out loud in front of the entire class. Over and over, students of 15, 16, or 17 would tell me, apparently repeating what teachers had told them, that they were no good at, say, science, or literature — as if their abilities were already set in stone. The kids were by and large a great bunch, full of exuberance and opinions on all kinds of topics, but at times they exhibited a troubling negativity and self-doubt when it came to things academic.
Now comes a new book by Peter Gumbel, a British expat who teaches at Sciences Po, France’s elite Institute of Political Studies, lambasting the French education system for humiliating children, neglecting teamwork, character-building, and positive reinforcement, and fostering pervasive low self-confidence. In an excerpt of On achève bien les écoliers (They Shoot Schoolchildren, Don’t They?), published in Sunday’s Observer, Gumbel writes that when he moved to Paris and enrolled his two daughters in school, the rigor he had expected was accompanied by a worrisome downside:
There were obvious symptoms: tummy aches and other signs of stress, an unhealthy phobia about making mistakes and flashes of self-doubt. “I’m hopeless at maths,” my eldest daughter declared one day. “No, you’re not, you just need to work at it harder,” was my reply. “No, daddy, you don’t understand anything. I’m hopeless.”
Gumbel cites international studies showing that French kids “are more anxious and intimidated in school than their peers in Europe or other developed countries.” And his critique, which has already provoked huge controversy in France, has significant implications for the nation’s higher-education system. Despite the steller academic qualifications of his Sciences Po students, who must pass notoriously difficult exams to be admitted, Gumbel reports that they don’t exactly appear to be reveling in the life of the mind:
The big surprise for me was not how bright these students were – and most are very, very bright – but how low their self-confidence was. Getting them to participate in classroom discussions was like pulling teeth. Exam time was trauma time: every year, several burst into tears during the oral.
In The Great Brain Race, I write optimistically of the potential of meritocratic college admissions standards around the world to allow young people to get ahead based on what they know rather than who they are (whether family background or nationality). And in the United States I haven’t had much patience for the self-esteem movement in K-12 education: we know that American pupils tend to have a much higher opinion of their academic abilities than is warranted by the evidence. But the message of Gumbel’s book certainly gives me pause. (Hat tip to Paris-based literary critic Natasha Lehrer for drawing my attention to the Observer article). If, as Gumbel maintains, France’s success at upholding high scholastic standards, and its exam-based path to upward mobility, goes hand in hand with a K-12 system that squelches students’ self-worth, that hardly seems the pathway to creating universities full of students who are worthy heirs to France’s great tradition of free thought and analytical rigor.
11 Responses to Does France’s Vaunted Education System Squelch Students’ Self-Confidence?
benzema23 - September 7, 2010 at 7:58 pm
There is something to be said about the lack of capacity to foster self-belief/self-confidence in pupils within the french system. There is just a general lack of “fun” in learning in France. I totally agree with this deficiency in the French system.We can go crazy comparing countries and their “systems”. But for what it’s worth, I have made the transition between the French and Anglo-Saxon education system.I would argue that overall, French pupils are held to a higher standard than their counterparts in other Western (European) countries.In the Anglo system everybody is great, everybody passes everything and there is no failure. And all these great high school grads go on full of self-belief going through life thinking they are great, even though they are utterly incompetent, which they cover up with their beaming confidence. And these people actually go places, which is a great disadvantage for their respective society and nation.These are the people at your workplace that love to talk and argue and hold lots of meetings where they can discuss the work that will be done. But they never actually do anything. Everybody has a strong opinion based on no actual knowledge, because they were thought to think oh so critically at school without ever having to open a book and actually learn its contents (I know sounds like a tutorial in a US/UK/AUS university, huh?).Also, I believe that students in Anglo-Saxon countries (US, UK, AUS, NZ etc…) actually have the highest levels of confidence compared to Asian and ‘Latin’ countries. This does not translate into actual performance at all. Think about the drop in US pupils competency in Maths and Science.Another observation is that I do not know of any of my friends that passed the French ‘baccalaureat’ who subsequently struggled in an Anglo-Saxon university where you have to actively try to fail to actually fail. Rather it has been a walk in the park for them. Considering that you have to sit exams for 12 subjects (including compulsory Maths and Philosophy) to pass high school in France, you actually build up the capacity to manage almost any professional workload later in life.
garcon - September 8, 2010 at 2:37 am
Great comment from Benzema23. But although French scholars are so well prepared thanks to the French Baccalaureat, explain me why are French universities so desperately far from the top in all rankings: Times Hihger Education, Shanghai, Leiden, etc. Schools as well as universities can no longer be ruled as a military corps, ruled by strict top-down management.
benzema23 - September 8, 2010 at 6:12 am
Because:-THES strongly favours Anglo-Saxon universities, “hey England have some points, oh thank you Australia here are some points in return, oh why USA you’re so generous to England don’t forget…etc…etc…” what a joke.-Anglo-Saxon private universities charge enormous fees from domestic students and they charge even more from international students. They fund their research (and buying the best researchers) by selling worthless degrees and consulting for private industry. I don’t blame these universities for their chosen funding model, it’s a conscious choice. But don’t go telling people “hey we only cater to rich people, charge them heaps of money and buy success, yay we’re the best!”I do not agree with the strict top down model especially when it comes to higher education/university. Also, the baccalaureat is probably not what prepares you to be a scholar, it’s university.
newsoffice - September 8, 2010 at 8:40 am
A friend of mine who is french and 40 years old is pretty open about the fact that she has still not recovered from the beating her sense of self took thanks to french schooling.A couple of years he and her family took a year’s sabbatical in France — and her three kids went to french shcools fo a year. The kids barely made it through. Suffice to say she has no interest in returning to France except for short visits.
eamelles - September 8, 2010 at 11:32 am
Having been a student in the British, French, and American school systems, I can see, somewhat, what Wildavsky is getting at. The French education system does not believe in positive reinforcement or any other forms of encouragement. There was a saying exchanged amongst English speaking expats in France: “The system will make or break you.”That said, my fourth grade elementary teacher in England told me that I could not draw. Since then, I have shyed away from artistic expression that involves painting or drawing. This does not just happen in France. I was a mediocre student in France, receiving average or below average grades (in part because I was still learning French). I started working harder my senior year (terminale), however, and passed the BAC with a mention assez bien (above average). When I moved to the US for college, I was shocked to realize I was now one of the best students in the class. I was soon put into the Honors program, graduated with a double major, summa cum laude, and a 4.0 GPA. I am now in grad. school.I do not think that I am particularly smart. The typical French professor would probably not think I am particulary smart. Everyone in the US seems to think I am, though. France does not seem to have been influenced by grade inflation like the US. In France, a 10/20 was average; a 15/20 was pretty good; nobody ever received 20/20. There was room to grow, room to improve. Here in the US, there no longer seem to be any standards. Students are given participation grades (under the guise of a well-written paper, or a great exam…). I do not blame it on the faculty. The pressure for students to perform well is coming from policies, the administration, parents…I for one am very glad I was educated in France. I may have lost some confidence, but I can at least say that I learned something in high school. I am not over-confident, ignorant, or immature.
katisumas - September 8, 2010 at 3:09 pm
I highly recommend Pierre Bourdieu’s books to help understand the French system and how it only appears to be a meritocracy.In spite of the exams to get the Bac (High School diploma) which is the ticket to join the middle class, and in spite of the competitive exams to get into institutions of higher learning, stats consistently show that success is directly correlated to class status.
katisumas - September 8, 2010 at 3:27 pm
To #5, eamelles,I too grew up in the French system, actually in the milder form in Belgium. I consistently flanked almost all my classes so my mother had to send me to the US to family there. I did fine in college –even though I started out knowing hardly any English– and eventually went on to grad school and a PhD, and a career in academia.My teaching experience leads me to an entirely different conclusion than yours. I taught for a few years in a gradeless college which required instead detailed comments on all student work. You could however ask a student to rewrite her/his paper, which you can’t do in a grading system. I found that without grades, students could be challenged and could challenge themselves to go farther with the course material, and a number of them actually did graduate level work…. So I came to the conclusion that grades can actually hinder scholarship rather than foster it.In contrast, when you know that there’s no way you or anyone else will ever get an A (aka 20/20) there’s no point in pushing yourself. A C will do fine and get you that piece of paper you need.
benzema23 - September 9, 2010 at 8:53 pm
Thank you #5 and #7 I have had the exact same experience. Average in France. Awards, Honours etc… in Anglo-Saxon system! This must mean something, no? This includes topping foreign language classes and beating native English speakers in essay-writing…Its the results that count in the end people…
greeneyeshader107 - September 13, 2010 at 1:03 am
And what have these high French standards produced? Theories of philosophy and the arts that Joseph Epstein said amount to attempts to prove that reality doesn’t exist; the auteur theory of filmmaking (John Simon, whose brow is as high as they make ‘em, suggested years ago that the French critics came up with that one to excuse spending the war in the cinematheque instead of the Resistance), a political culture of corruption and impunity that makes Spiro Agnew look like a piker, and the idea that Jerry Lewis is a world genius. All right, I oversimplify, but I don’t think it’s an accident that the greatness of modern French culture comes from people who didn’t go through this system.
walterblass - September 14, 2010 at 1:02 pm
After some 17 years of teaching in one of the Grandes Ecoles in France, I find these generalizations about “French higher Ed” to overlook some important differences both in schools and in teaching methods.From what I experienced in teaching in a social science public university, the attitude among students is “it’s free, so let’s have a good time outside of class.” Among faculty it’s ” Yeah, I do my lectures, and I go home: advising, mentoring, remediating—what’s that? I’m not into that!”By contrast, go to a Sciences Po, HEC, INSEAD, hard science university, and you have a completely different ambience: tough standards, tough exams, real future. And then there are the in-betweens: Graduate Business Schools (supported by the Chambers of Commerce) some with lots of adjunct profs who come out of business careers. Teaching is uneven, but can be excellent ( e.g. Grenoble ranks #7 in Europe in Financial Times scale and the graduates land good jobs, such as 30,000 Euros one year out with an MIB.) Some have straight lectures, others lots of group dynamics, case studies, negotiating workshops, computer simulations/Is it all that different in America? The reading required at Harvard College is quite a lot less than at some third tier colleges, as is the writing requirement. MBA’s from the lesser schools have trouble finding jobs in a recession, but from the top 10 schools—ah yes, hat’s different.Conclusion: It all depends! If you are going to enroll your kids in a French school, inquire abut THAT school; just as Lycees differ in any given city, so do the undergaduate programs, or even grad ones. Talk to the students yourself–they’re not subject experts but they can tell good from bad teaching, and they’ll talk, honestly!
laurelzuckerman - September 15, 2010 at 11:24 am
With two children in the French public school system, I agree with Peter Gumbel’s assessment of the French education system and with Ben Wildavsky’s commentary.However, the problem in France is not just a question of self-esteem. What we are seeing in France is students who are AFRAID to ask questions or to speak up. This hurts learning, most visibly in subjects where a student is required to express himself, as in foreign languages. Where results between countries can be compared, as in English, France scores very badly (see the 2002 Evaluation of English and the international TOEFL).The cause is poor teaching skills due to an antiquated and inefficient method of selecting and “training” teachers. This is a structural problem. In France, teachers are civil servants. To qualify to teach in a public school, candidates must pass a competitive exam which, it should be pointed out, has nothing to do with competence in the classroom. The number of positions available in any of 37 subjects is fixed by the national government. Each year, more than 100,000 candidates compete for about 10,000 slots. The winners obtain a job for life as a functionary in France’s civil service bureaucracy.This has two negative consequences. First: so much effort goes in to SELECTING and ELIMINATING candidates that there is very little time, energy and budget left over for actually TRAINING them. Second, the process itself subjects future teachers to the antithesis of good teaching practice–flat out competition, excessive criticism, focus on impressing judges (as opposed to communicating with students) and the mastery of arcane skills which are often detrimental in the classroom. (For example, until two years ago, future English teachers had to give a brilliant extemporaneous lecture IN FRENCH–a behavior known to impede foreign language learning in the classroom. Teachers selected this way remain for decades.)As a result, young teachers arrive in the classroom knowing only one thing: how to pass a competitive exam. They do not know how to teach or even whether they like teaching–and yet they have a “job for life”.Could teachers not be trained after they are hired, through continuing education? In theory, yes, but in practice, the investment in competitive exams starves continuing education of resources, so it is very difficult to update or improve teaching skills–especially since teachers, who tend to stay 35-40 years, have no incentive to do so. (Promotions are also by competitive exam.)There is, I believe, a link between the French teacher selection process and students’ poor results. While fairly obvious on one hand, this idea is considered shocking in France, where the competitive exam (“concours”) has formed the basis of the French meritocracy for two hundred years. To challenge it is taboo, and all attempts to do so have failed.Unfortunately, as long as teachers are recruited by “concours” as civil servants, it is hard to see how teacher training can be reformed.Laurel Zuckerman author of Sorbonne Confidential (a book about France’s highest competitive exam for English teachers, based on my experience in the AGREGATION D’ANGLAIS at the Sorbonne Paris IV)