Alexandre Castagnetti imagined a teacher who releases the initiative and the desires of the pupils, before the return of the stick of the administration.
by
Among the palanque of films devoted to school released for a few months, here is one, particularly kind, which checks all the boxes. A consumer film that does not greatly insult the intelligence of the latter, this is too rare in France to fail to point out. Will we dare to repeat, fearing to bring him wrong, that Castagnetti, by his own admission, was notably inspired by the master ignorant of the philosopher Jacques Rancière? The book relates to the experience of Joseph Jacotot, French teacher who professed around 1818 at the University of Louvain (Belgium) without knowing a word of Flemish, and yet with the greatest profit.
The intrigue of the film, to return to healthier references, is more or less that of the last Ducobu (Ducobu President!), But upside down. Where Elie Semoun mocked the supposed “laissez-faire” of alternative pedagogies, describing the resulting anarchy, Alexandre Castagnetti, which is not in his first film on adolescence (Tamara, 2016; La la la Glue, 2017…), defends the reverse thesis with charm and brilliance.
Either the Jean-Zay college, a name that is worth a program, an average lambda establishment, not socially marked, conducive to the experience that will be carried out there. Virginie Thévenot, new math teacher, weakened by a tragic experience that occurred in a class of excellence in which she taught, takes advantage of her transfer to this establishment without any particular qualities to question it, as much for herself as for her students, All the sacrosanct principles of the educational institution.
Democratic laboratory
first discreetly. To see in a way, by defying with a fine intelligence the presuppositions of the class. It takes a certain courage in the face of a pack which will always interpret the breaches of the principles of authority – starting with the abandonment of notes – as a sign of weakness. Then, more openly, thanks to a general strike by the teaching staff, volunteering to welcome students who cannot stay at home. From this moment, the school turns into an open -air democratic laboratory. It is a question of awakening the students to their own desires, of encouraging common projects and therefore the spirit of solidarity essential to their implementation. And it works, beyond all hope, like Malika, absentee Cabocharde, but unsuspected scientific genius, which invents a self-sufficient power supply system for high school.
You have 26.99% of this article to read. The continuation is reserved for subscribers.