Sleep-in Protests to Be Staged in French Schools

[Rich Gibson <rgibson@pipeline.com>]

Perhaps a better term would be a work-in, or 
teach-in, but this revives an old tactic used by 
welfare workers who seized buildings, worked-in, 
refused to cut grants while they met with 
recipients explaining why welfare was as it was. 
Actions like these are worth considering. At the 
end of the day, a work-in is no match for a 
strike coupled with some form of Freedom Schooling, but it is a start.



> ------------------------
> from l'Humanité:
> Sleep-in Protests to Be Staged in French Schools
>
> Parents and teachers will be sleeping in class 
> this Friday in a ?Night of the Schools? against 
> the measures introduced by Minister of Education 
> Darcos. The sleep-in, which originated in Nantes, is spreading.
>
> Struggle while you sleep: that could be the 
> phrase that will be coined at the end of this 
> week. A new form of protest will see teachers 
> and parents snoozing in class in the night of 
> Friday to Saturday this week, during a huge 
> ?Night of the Schools? protest (1). The protest 
> targets the on-going reforms. Begun in Nantes 
> last Wednesday, the protest will hit over 200 
> schools in 32 ?départements? (roughly equivalent 
> to a county) according to an estimate made 
> yesterday. The figure should increase in view of 
> the enthusiasm that has greeted the protest.
>
> Will the initiators of the movement attain their 
> goal of 1,000 schools? Time will tell. In the 
> meantime, the movement is hitting the bull?s 
> eye, both in the Paris region and in the 
> Maine-et-Loire département. But it has had the 
> most impact where it began, that is to say, in 
> the Loire-Atlantique département. ?A few weeks 
> ago, a collective was set up to discuss the new 
> pedagogical set-up proposed by Xavier Darcos,? 
> the parent of a pupil explained. ?The 
> elimination of classes on Saturday morning 
> [until now, French schools have been closed on 
> Wednesday afternoons and open on Saturday 
> mornings ? translator?s note], remedial classes 
> during the holidays and the ?back-to-the-basics? 
> curricula are fake good ideas,? he went on. The 
> pace of learning will not be respected for 
> students with problems, who will be forced to 
> stay after class in the evening or go to school 
> during the holidays. As for the curricula, they 
> are both too intense and emptied of all creative thinking.
>
> Consequently, the collective wanted to strike a 
> mighty blow. Several night occupations had 
> already been held in the Maine-et-Loire and 
> Ille-et-Vilaine départements. The people of the 
> Nantes region have put forward the concept on a 
> national scale. On Friday night, it will 
> therefore be a matter of ?going to sleep while 
> dreaming of a 2008-2009 school year in which the 
> curricula will be conceived together with 
> professional teachers,? the poster made for the 
> protest explains, and ?in which pupils who have 
> problems will be helped by special teachers during the regular school day.?
>
> The sleep-in concept is seen as nice and 
> friendly. ?It is a pleasant concept,? said 
> Gilles Moindrot, the general secretary of the 
> SNUIpp-FSU teachers union. ?Generally, schools 
> are occupied to protest against a reduction in 
> the number of classes. This time, the demand is 
> for quality education.? The teachers union has 
> joined the movement and has put the sleep-in on 
> page one of its website. Christiane Allain, the 
> general secretary of the FCPE, the parents? 
> association, is also enthusiastic. ?Our members 
> pushed us to join this protest,? she explained. 
> ?At first, we were a little worried about 
> questions of legal liability in case of 
> problems. » But the legal framework having been 
> clarified, ?nothing is holding us back any more ...?
>
> (1) nuit.des.ecoles.over-blog.com