The report submitted to the Ministry of National Education on Stanislas College notes the remarks and actions of certain staff which send shivers down the spine. “Homophobia”, “sexism”, “misogyny”, disembodied relationship with sexuality, denigration of the body… An investigation would be opened under article 40. These abuses must be studied and taken seriously – it is easy to imagine the consequences disastrous effects they can have on the development and self-esteem of many young people. However, they should not be cynically exploited by the enemies of academic freedom to demand ever more advanced alignment of contract schools with public schools. There is nothing like popular emotion to get repressive reforms adopted.
The timing is perfect: public education unions are right now demanding pledges from Minister Oudéa-Castéra to enable her to redeem her declaration of love for private schools. Given the state of public finances, it is difficult to give more money to National Education, although it is urgent to upgrade teachers, financially and morally. Conversely, hitting on academic freedom is not expensive and would give such pleasure to the enemies of free schooling! However, it would be distressing to reach this point, in other words, to rekindle the school war.
45% of French people go through private school. It is no longer the subject of an ideological choice. On the contrary, it is a pragmatic choice, rarely motivated by religion, sometimes even downright cynical. Parents quite simply believe that such teaching offers the most conducive framework for their children’s success. They accept, in passing, the “moral and religious packaging” of this school offer without too much qualms. Isn’t that the price they have to pay for their children to achieve good academic results?
Secularization
It must be said that the confessional character is, most often, very slight in Catholic teaching. Mgr Cattenoz sold this open secret in 2006, by openly declaring that many establishments were Catholic in name only. It is different from most Jewish or Muslim schools, which have kept an uninhibited religious dimension. The fact that there are a handful of “Catholic” establishments that are more religious than the average should not mislead us: the Catholic contract school is in full secularization. It simply happens that the contract establishments judged to be the best, the most elitist, and ultimately the most likely to lead children to the best of the great schools and to make them “succeed in life” are Catholic establishments.
In the overwhelming majority of schools, catechism is more than light, fixed at times reflecting its low importance. It’s not even rated! Religious celebrations are rare and absences are never noted, much less sanctioned. On the other hand, certain social developments sanctioned by the legislator have highlighted the conservatism prevailing in certain establishments. Thus the Taubira law of 2013, which led to the reaffirmation of the official position of the Church on same-sex couples. If the line between the affirmation of such a position and discrimination is sometimes tenuous, the gap between certain social developments and the absence of evolution of the Church’s doctrinal positions on morals is an incontestable fact.
Freedom of conscience
If the law prohibits any school under contract from making religious training compulsory (L 141-3 of the Education Code), social consensus considers rather that freedom of conscience is respected in private schools under contract as long as children of different religions or agnostics are admitted and that the practice of the sacraments is not obligatory (confession, communion, confirmation, etc.). Parents accept (with some exceptions) that their child attends religion classes, understanding that they have chosen a Catholic school and that they must respect its rules and identity without being entitled to an à la carte menu. If manifestations of Catholicism are unbearable to them, they have plenty of time to attend public school. These religion classes are generally seen as contributing to the general culture of children.
The situation is complicated by the general evolution of morals and the increasingly strong affirmation of children’s rights. The more case law establishes the rights of the latter, the more the rights of parents are weakened. Should the school seek to respect the freedom of conscience of parents (who freely and consciously choose the establishment that suits them) or that of children (who have the right to have their own freedom of conscience not violated? ) ? The difficulty comes from the fact that the conscience of children, and even adolescents, is precisely in the process of being formed and that the sessions of awakening to faith are presented as means of forming their conscience as well as their soul. Without religious, civic and moral training, can the child take actions and use his freedom? But if he receives particular religious or philosophical training, his conscience will certainly be oriented by the reception of this heritage, which could contradict emerging personal convictions. These questions are extremely delicate, and all families have experienced them. The more the State enacts laws and regulations on morals, and the more the specific character of the school (Editor’s note, in private establishments which have entered into one of the contracts provided for in articles L. 442-5 and L. 442-12 , education placed under the regime of the contract is subject to State control. The establishment, while retaining its own character, must provide this education with total respect for freedom of conscience) encounters difficulties in express, especially since, since the 2000s, the moralizing dimension of Catholicism has taken a majority place in the image that this religion reflects in France, in particular under the effect of the caricature that a certain left has made of it .
Tangle of contradictions
A contract school can organize, outside of schedules and disciplines imposed by National Education, training on emotional education (Editor’s note, which promotes healthy emotional relationships), but it must respect the compulsory SVT program, which trivializes sexuality. early, recourse to contraception and abortion. Catholic schools almost systematically make the big gap between the affirmation of the faith of the Church, such as the sanctity of life from conception, and what the law imposes: a young person must be able to receive school infirmary the morning-after pill and, tomorrow, if this is not already the case, PReP (preventive treatment for AIDS in the event of unprotected sex). What then remains of the sacred character of life? Young Catholics are caught, within their own confessional establishment, in a tangle of contradictions. The right recognized to all students by National Education to be called within their establishment according to the gender identity they have chosen and not according to their sex further increases tensions since in catechism, we learn that “man and woman he created them”…
Cosmogony versus cosmology
How can we not be uncomfortable with the deliberate lack of connection between catechesis and secular courses covered by the National Education program? Doesn’t this encourage dissimulation or… schizophrenia? In the current state of the law, a school has complete freedom to teach, during awakening to faith, the story of Genesis as it sees fit, in accordance with its own character. The State does not get involved in knowing whether it will give a fundamentalist or more relativist or even symbolic reading. These courtyards are not inspected because they are the privileged place of expression of one’s own character. On the other hand, as part of the academic program, the courses must present the current state of science on the origin of the world and human life. Cosmogony versus cosmology. Children do not fail to ask questions about how these two stories could coexist. No response is organized. In public schools, teachers will probably say that Genesis is a myth that, in many ways, echoes other myths and stories from other religions or cultures. At private schools, the response is completely unpredictable because the majority of teachers do not believe in God and only pay lip service to the educational and spiritual project of the establishment. It is often a lecturer or a volunteer catechist, neither the training nor the course of which is really subject to control, who will give his personal response, with more or less erudition and tact.
The Stanislas affair can therefore finally give us the opportunity to think about subjects which have until now been modestly swept under the carpet: how on earth do we articulate secular courses and the presentation of the faith in a confessional school? How can we better articulate the educational responsibilities of parents with the freedom of conscience of children? How do we make respect for one’s own character coexist with respect for the law, not to mention respect for contemporary social consensus? The more young people become secularized, the more they accept the superiority of positive law over religious law. But if this is generally true of Catholics, it is probably not the case of other religions present in France. There are therefore different, even opposing, anthropological and moral visions which coexist quite poorly with each other, on the same French territory. This is not new and it is even rather positive for our democratic pluralism. Michel Sardou’s song about “the two schools” from 1985 demonstrates this with talent: “I went to both schools and it didn’t change anything”, he sings. A single discourse on the origin of the world, the nature of evil and our reasons for hope would be frighteningly totalitarian. We have to accept that we are feeling our way. The secular framework of our institutions allows us to seek, to deceive ourselves and to seek again the face of God, of freedom, of good and evil, of ourselves. Our freedom of conscience is so precious, but it is not nourished by nothing. Wasn’t Voltaire a student at the Jesuit high school in Louis-le-Grand? Wasn’t little Father Combes, a figure of anticlericalism, a former seminarian who did his thesis on Saint Thomas Aquinas? So, while waiting to dare to tackle certain fundamental questions head-on, it is urgent to safeguard academic freedom, the best ally, despite everything, of freedom of conscience and our vibrant democracy.
*Anne Coffinier is a graduate of ENS and ENA, former diplomat and president of Create your school and of the Kairos foundation for educational innovation.
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