Last week in lecture, we covered
Burke’s ideas on classical conservatism and the idea of the
great chain of being. The great chain of being is the belief that there is a
social order to things: people, animals, even the angels. According to Burke,
things are meant to be this way and should not change. Based on this idea,
Burke also supports the ideas of social hierarchy and inequality. Professor LaVaque-Manty used a line from the
Disney movie character, Syndrome, from “The Incredibles” to illustrate Burke’s
views on inequality: “When everyone’s super, no one is.” Burke believes we need
these “special,” “super,” or upper-class people to maintain order; that they
are the natural way of the world.
As much as we would like to think,
today in the 21st century, we no longer believe this enforced social
inequality is a good idea, but all across the globe, governments have started
to separate the population beginning with children as young as ten.
All across Europe and Asia, schools
‘track’ students shortly before they enter middle school. Students decide, or
are told based on their aptitude tests’ scores, what type of career they will
go into after high school, and consequently, what kind of high school they will
attend: professional or technological. In profession schools, students are
directly prepared to go into the career they choose right out of high school. Technological
schools, also called general schools, are a lot like high schools in the U.S.
and prepare students to go on to education after high school. In France, at
least, the most important thing these
schools prepare their students for is
The Bac is a national standardized
test taken throughout France at the end of a students’ final year of high
school as part of the entrance process for college. This test is a lot like the
U.S. version of the ACT or the SAT, but with some major differences. First, if
you do not pass the Bac, as 20% of students don’t every year, students must
retake their senior year of high school, and will be forced to retake both
their senior year and the Bac until they do pass the Bac. By the way, only 60%
of students pass the Bac on their first try. If you are really close to passing
the Bac, though, the board will allow you to retake it a few weeks after scores
come out. Second, when students do pass the Bac and attend college, the French
government pays it for. The Bac, also, does not award final scores through a
points system like the ACT/SAT. The students are put into one of four categories:
Très Bien, Bien, Aussi Bien, and Sans Mention (Very Good, Good, Kind of Good,
and Without Mention). The scores for each section are scored numerically,
however. The test is divided between a written and an oral exam. The topics on
the exam can from calculus to detailed questions from a prescribed list of
books. Perhaps the most daunting part of the Bac is when the scores come out
they are posted to the town as a whole on either bulletin boards or school
windows. Entire towns shut down while students prepare for the Bac, so they
will not be distracted, and they all come out to see the scores posted as well.
Can you imagine your ACT/SAT scores being posted in front of your high school
for everyone to see? The day the scores come out the local news crews are
always there to report how the exam went as a whole for the school. The video
below is an example.
Ok, yes, I know the
video is in French, but I still think there is a lot of value to this video.
The students speaking at the beginning are all basically relieved the stress of
the exam will be over as soon as the scores are revealed. The young girl says
she’ll either be incredibly excited or cry depending on what score she gets.
The chart in the middle of the video shows how the percentage of students who
passed and failed the Bac went down in 2010 compared to 2009. The man speaking
at the end of the video, Mr. Jean-Louis Mivel, is the director of high schools
for the town of Saint Michel. He is addressing the question of weather or not
the French should do away with the Bac. He says the Bac is a right of passage,
much like military service for young men. He also says it is encouraging 80% of
students passed the Bac. This means the test is not too easy and the students
getting the top scores deserve them. Just as Syndrome said, there’s no point to
the test if everyone is getting a score of Très Bien.
The whole point of the French
education system is to sort the students, just as the chain of nature sorted
society. Only certain people are deemed worthy of the top positions in the
chain or the best jobs in society. Is this a good thing or a bad thing? Does
the government have the right to decide what kind of jobs students will have
when they are only ten years old? At the same time, does the French government have
a good idea going; to have one standard college entrance exam and one national
curriculum to go with it? Every student across the entire country reads the
same books in literature class and has the same textbook for math. Can this
kind of system work in the United States? We have to remember France is roughly
the size of Texas; it is much easier to regulate a state’s curriculum than the
entire nation. That is why it is the states’ job to regulate education in the
United States. Despite the size difference and Constitutional contradictions, could we instate a similar system
here in the U.S.?
Sources
Anderson, Bruce, Peter Golato, and Susan Blatty. En Avant!: Beginning French. Student ed. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2012. Print.
"List of The Incredibles Characters." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 11 Dec. 2012. Web. 20 Nov. 2012. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_The_Incredibles_characters>.
"THE KEEP CALM-O-MATIC." KEEP CALM AND PASS YOUR BAC EXAM. Keep Calm-o-Matic, 2012. Web. 20 Nov. 2012. <http://www.keepcalm-o-matic.co.uk/p/keep-calm-and-pass-your-bac-exam/>.
