French Collège: observable psychological effects

French Collège:  complete mind and body control

What is the general effect of living out your school life under such conditions?

Shades of Grey

Everything is organised, dictated and controlled, all you have to do as a pupil is to turn up and comform.  There is a certain institutional reassurance to be gained from this if you are a pupil who can conform adequately;  pupils do not have much opportunity to disrupt the class or bully other pupils, or get behind in their work without anyone noticing, or think for themselves, and each day is much like the same day the week before.

They learn:

• Not to think for themselves
• Not to have any ideas
• Not to have any idea what creativity could be
• Not to seek solutions to problems
• To accept passively without giving, without asking
• To wear clothes from the following pallette:****
• Not to stand out
• Not to exhibit or feel individual differences
• Not to help or hinder anyone else
• To focus on self and ability to conform/perform 
• Pay no heed to the success or failures of others or of any 'group'

Peter Gumbel points out a
"characteristic that is immediately apparent to every foreigner who has contact with French schools : the dictatorship of the classroom. A culture that is unforgiving, demeaning and sometimes humiliating. A culture that has made a cult out of high-pressure evaluation and yet gives only short shrift to the notion of individual motivation. A culture of excellence, certainly, but one which pushes down the weakest students rather than giving itself the mission of lifting them up. A culture that thinks nothing of giving 0 out of 20 to a poor paper but can’t bring itself to give 20 out of 20 to an excellent one. A culture of worthlessness, in short, that is the diametric opposite of the grandiose promises of the republic. "

And for those who cannot conform?

France has a school failure (echec scolaire) rate of 15 - 20 percent.  This is terrible.