went to europe. drank wine. saw churches. fell down a lot. came home.

Reading: Breaking Dawn, last in the Twilight series. The first half of it is the best of the whole series; the last half is just as dull as the rest. To be followed by a little bit of literature, A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini, author of The Kite Runner.

Watching: Saying farewell to Dexter, Heroes and Californication for the year. Just starting on Battlestar Galactica as the webisodes make their appearance. Also, La Cage Aux Folles, as in the musical, based on the French 70’s film, which I saw from the cheapseats in London; you may know it by it’s American remake, The Birdcage, starring Robin Williams. I also rewatched Wesele (The Wedding), a hilarious Polish film, which I saw while staying with a couchhost in Paris.

I went over to the UK for the weekend, but more interesting things have been going on since I returned.

Monday I arrived back at 5am (overnight bus), and was glad to slump into bed after sending a quick email to the colleague whose class I’d been planning to attend that day, telling her I was too tired. When I woke, her responding email told me it was no problem that I’d not been able to make it: students had rioted outside my school, set a car on fire, destroyed a bus shelter, and prevented her students from attending the class in question.

Meanwhile, today (Tuesday), I had to convince security guards in poor French that, indeed, I was a teacher (despite the frayed jeans and lack of a leather satchel), and that they could let me through the barricades while students behind me set fire to newspapers and tyres. Later on the riot police turned up, arrested some teenagers, and effectively cancelled the rest of my classes that morning.

So, what’s going on? France’s education minister, fueled by Sarkozy’s fervent desire for reform, has been redesigning the secondary level education system. Basically, France currently has a general competitive exam (the BAC), 8am-6pm days for students, with compulsory core subjects, like the Americans; the new reform would make the system more similar to the British and Australian systems where exams are specific to the subject (A-Levels, Year 12 subjects), choices are more flexible, the year is split into 2 semestres instead of 3 terms, and there are fewer compulsory subjects.

Without knowing too much about it, and biased by my own experiences, I don’t see the issue with the reforms – they seem to be a long time coming (the 8am-6pm days my secondary and tertiary students endure are ludicrously long, and out of step with the rest of the French ideal to working to live as opposed to living to work; and increased flexibility, choice and specialisation is always a good thing). But the teachers and students here are violently concerned about the consequences of these reforms, so there must be more to it.

Around the country, teachers – and students – have been protesting and demonstrating against the reforms. It meant nothing to me other than an occasional free class to listen to my audiobooks and wander around the grounds of Lycee Cesar Baggio (lycee = high school, the school I’m stationed at).

However, some students of Baggio decided they wanted to, well, get out of class and burn some shit up, and they did just that. I’d arrived last Friday to see steaming bitumen and Lille council workers cleaning the pavement of burning newspapers. I learnt later they were cleaning up the remains of several melted wheelie bins that had been set alight. The teacher I worked with, Francois, told me there’d been some excitement before I’d arrived. Rushing off to catch my bus after the lesson, I’d thought nothing more of it, until her email on Monday afternoon.

So, Tuesday, I turned up, early for once, to find a crowd of violent teenagers refusing students and teachers entry through the gates, having barricaded them with stolen chicken wire fences. A young female student tried to enter while I stood there, and was almost squashed behind the chicken wire; I could see the deputy proviseur (deputy principal) standing anxious behind a line of security guards through the fences. I figured out how to get in – through another entrance which was letting in teachers only. That morning, only three students attended my first class (they all were Baggio boarders, who lived on the school premises, and were not permitted to leave). The remaining two classes for that morning, no others made it through.

I spent the other two classes I had that morning standing in the staffroom watching the riot police clean up the kids. My colleagues seemed more concerned that the riot police had appeared – as Rene explained, when the riot police turn up, you know it’s bad, and that civil liberties are going to be thrown out the window.

When I left (no students turned up to my other classes, so I left early) I saw more students being arrested by the police, saw the smashed bus shelter, the scorch marks from yesterday’s burnt car, and smelt the stench of burnt plastic.

Tuesdays I work a split shift. I came back in the afternoon, to find everything back as normal. My afternoon classes went as normal, only the main topic of conversation was the riots. One student told me she’d climbed over a wall to enter, to avoid the students who had barricaded the front entrance. The others told me they didn’t think much of the element who’d incited the riot. It was all very interesting.

Mostly, it is the opinion of teachers and students here that the kids who incited the riot were just looking for trouble, and used the reforms as an excuse. Baggio is in a low-socioeconomic area; it’s a technical lycee, somewhat an equivalent of a TAFE college, where students learn a trade alongside a general education in Maths, Science and English. Most students are from disadvantaged backgrounds. Kids in these areas are not exactly the biggest fans of Sarkozy (French president) and Darcos (the minister of education), and they’d taken this oppourtunity to set stuff alight. However, to their defense, there are some protestors that genuinely believe the reforms are to the detriment of future generations: essentially, like all governments, Sarkozy’s is only interested in cutting back the budget, which the reforms would allow.

So, anyway, La Voix Du Nord, the local Nord newspaper, took some pretty wicked pictures, which I have reproduced here totally without authorisation (but for the benefit of my non-French speaking friends), but you can see them in the original context here:

http://photos.lavoix.com/main.php?g2_itemId=67024

In the background, that’s the metro (train) line running in the background, and the school I work at.

Okay, there’s a kicker about this poor bus shelter. Notice that the middle panel has been busted. Look later.

This is the bus shelter across the road. The one you saw before had the middle panel knocked out, remember? Wait for it.

There it is, my school - Lycee Cesar Baggio - with the fires in front of it.

When I went back this afternoon, I took a few photos of the aftermath.

Heres the bus shelter you first saw (the second is actually across the road). Yep, they fixed the middle glass on Monday – and then the next morning, the students destroyed the other two panels. I fully expect to see it fully fixed when I go past on Thursday. Hows that for efficiency?

Scorch marks from the burning car.

Remains of the burning tyres.

Scorchmarks on the previously barricaded gates.

“Lille, Athens, long live the riot”.

Many mentioned to me the connection between this riot and that which is happening in Greece at the moment. Apparently these students have been ‘inspired’ by them. It seems the disadvantaged are quite happy anywhere in the world to show the authorities what the mob can do.

So, anyway, this is my first experience of French revolutionism. Rene had been concerned that this was the image of France that me, as a foreigner, had been given. I assured him that actually it was pretty exciting, and interesting to see! How very French to witness a riot. Come on, there’s nothing better.

There were a few other students getting their riot on in several other areas nearby, only we took the cake: at Henin Beaumont, Armentieres, Wattrelos and Behal.

http://www.lavoixdunord.fr/actualite/L_info_en_continu/Artois/2008/12/16/article_importante-mobilisation-lyc-eacute-enne.shtml

http://www.lavoixdunord.fr/actualite/L_info_en_continu/Metropole_Lilloise/2008/12/16/article_les-lyc-eacute-ens-mobilis-eacute-s-agra.shtml

http://www.lavoixdunord.fr/actualite/L_info_en_continu/Metropole_Lilloise/2008/12/16/article_wattrelos-une-voiture-incendiee-devant-l.shtml

http://www.lavoixdunord.fr/actualite/L_info_en_continu/Artois/2008/12/15/article_lens-le-lyc-eacute-e-b-eacute-hal-occup.shtml

My last students of the day, all high level in English and very political, told me all about the motivations behind the riots, and the history of some of France’s more recent more impressive demonstrations. Apparently similar demonstrations of a few years back were prompted by an industrial relations law. This resembled Howard’s WorkChoices, where young workers were stripped of their rights to unfair dismissal. The resulting demonstrations paralysed the education system for a month. They also spoke about another riot, back in the 60’s, where the whole country was shutdown for three months (I remember seeing The Dreamers – excellent, though disturbing, movie by the way – so this one rang a bell).

I told them about the biggest protest I could remember of my time – the protest against Howard’s sending our troops to Iraq – and how the government (or, at least, John Howard) ignored us, although 10,000 people protested in Adelaide alone. My students told me we should consider burning a few cars – maybe the government would listen to us then. I gotta say – he’s gotta point.

So you guys back home who are demonstrating against the government for better wages for teachers: take some French advice, step it up a bit. What’s one less Range-Rover?*

*Of course, you would be ecologically sensible and burn the biggest car you can find. Just ignore the greenhouse gases – it’s all for the greater good .

Stories about the riots at Cesar Baggio over the last few days, all in French, unfortunately:

http://www.lavoixdunord.fr/actualite/L_info_en_continu/Metropole_Lilloise/2008/12/16/article_lille-nouveaux-incidents-au-lyc-eacute-e.shtml

http://www.lavoixdunord.fr/actualite/L_info_en_continu/Metropole_Lilloise/2008/12/15/article_lille-500-lyc-eacute-ens-dans-les-rues-c.shtml

http://www.lavoixdunord.fr/actualite/L_info_en_continu/Metropole_Lilloise/2008/12/15/article_lille-incidents-au-lyc-eacute-e-baggio.shtml