Our Right - "Nos Enfants"

As you may or may not know, our children are "unschooled," a type of home-schooling that, simply put, does not follow a pre-decided curriculum based on what legislators or business people deem necessary for their development according to a pre-determined timetable.

The French president is currently trying to push through a law that takes away parents' right* to decide what type of education their children receive. He has made an unfortunate and shocking amalgam between Islamist radicals and parents who chose to assume the responsibility of educating their own children. He claims that by forcing all children into school, terrorism will be eradicated. I will not go into the fallacies of his argument but will point out two things: One, all known terrorists who have committed crimes in France have been school-educated either in France or abroad. Two, we are already required by law to declare our decision each year to both our mayor and the National Education system and are controlled by certified inspectors. Those not interested in following existent laws are not going to do so in the future either.

One mother and song artist Sasha Bogdanoff has recorded a song, which I would very much love for you to take time to listen to. Yes, it is in French, so this is a pretty blatant request just to click through even if you don't speak the language in order to increase the visibility of the song.

I will now do my best to provide an English translation of the lyrics. Keep in mind that if "Traduttore, traditore" is true in a general sense, it is doubly applicable where music and poetry are concerned. :P I have tried to leave phrases that have an understandable English equivalent. I apologize in advance to Ms. Bogdanoff, but her work is too beautiful not to share.

Watch on YouTube

"Our Children"

I don't have the words, I don't have the forms
I don't have the contours of the decor
To express myself, free myself
To tell you to take a hike

And if tomorrow, you take away
My liberty to accompany
And if tomorrow, you steal
my lawful right to decide

Know, sir, that you're taking the wrong route
We are many who have no doubt
Our children, they are not made of wax
And our right is to teach them

On a boat, on a bike,
Under apple trees, in a museum
Early in the morning, or late
On horseback under tall trees

In my arms, reclining there
We think, we play at living
We find the rhythm, we improvise,
We organize our school of life

Know, sir, that you're taking the wrong route
We are many who have no doubt
Our children, they are not made of wax
And our right is to teach them

Know, sir, that you're taking the wrong route
We are many who have no doubt
Our children, they have learned to read
Between the lines of the Republic, the Repulic.


The French lyrics to "Nos Enfants" de Sasha Bogdanoff:

Je n’ai pas les mots, je n’ai pas les formes,

Je n’ai pas les contours du décor.

Pour m’exprimer, me libérer,

Pour vous envoyer balader.

Et si demain, vous me preniez

Ma liberté de l’accompagner

Et si demain, vous me voliez

Mon droit premier, de décider.

Sachez Monsieur que vous faites fausse route,

Nous sommes nombreux à n’avoir point de doutes.

Nos enfants eux, ne sont pas faits de cire,

Et notre droit est celui de les instruire.

Sur un bateau, sur un vélo,

Sous les pommiers, dans un musée,

Le matin tôt, ou en retard,

Ou à cheval, sous les grands arbres,

Entre mes bras, allongés là,

On réfléchit, on joue à vivre,

On trouve le rythme, on improvise,

On organise l’école de notre vie.

Sachez Monsieur que vous faites fausse route,

Nous sommes nombreux à n’avoir point de doutes.

Nos enfants eux, ne sont pas faits de cire,

Et notre droit est celui de les instruire.

Sachez Monsieur que vous faites fausse route,

Nous sommes nombreux à n’avoir point de doutes.

Nos enfants eux, ont bien appris à lire,

Entre les lignes de la République.

______
*Article 2 of Protocol No. 1 to the European Convention on Human Rights

Addendum to my previous post

My post about the song in support of parents' right to decide on their children's education is a bit long, so I did not want to add to it.  However, I was thinking about how one nation's problems seem foreign, unimportant, and impossible to address to citizens of other countries.  Especially when each of us is already under some kind of "home country" stress, more true now than ever with elections, social injustice, corruption, a virus that has shut down the world*...

Yet, haven't many horrific situations in history started in just such a way?  A blind-eye to misgovernment here, a tiny revocation of freedom there, little by little habituating people to give up without a fight? To keep our eyes on our own problems so that we cannot be bothered to help others?  For my part, I hate talking about politics.  You can count on one hand--and maybe not use all of your fingers--the posts I have made in the almost-15 years I have been blogging.  And even writing this now, I have the feeling that I am bothering people, will be taken as a fanatic.  But I realize that my head-in-the-sand approach is part of the problem. :(

In France, education was obligatory for children 6 to 16 until a year and a half ago.  Not school:  education.  However, ask the general public and they will tell you it is school that is mandatory because that is the way the media presents "back to school" every year on TV and in the papers: "L'école est obligatiore de 6 à 16 ans" and no one corrects them.  Then the government lowered the obligatory age to 3. I told our inspector I thought it was a bad idea, but I didn't protest. I didn't contact our government representatives... 

Little by little, freedom by freedom.

Now this new law is attempting to make school and not education obligatory.  So, children, three years old, are going to be forced to pass the majority of their day in a school whether the children or parents want it or not.  If your three-year-old is not ready for school, it doesn't matter.  There are already so many problems in schools that need to be addressed, and now they want to add to the load of poor teachers who are already overworked in schools that are over-populated. (A sad corollary to this is that there is plenty of room in rural schools and yet the government makes it hard for people to live in the country, preferring to have everyone in easier-to-control/observe cities.)  

 

So twice in November, I went to protests, and J and our kids were able to go to the last one.  We might not be heard, but it won't be because we didn't lift our voices.

My sign, recto-verso:
 

"Shhh, Papa State knows better than you"

"Liberty, Egality, Fraternity" (with word plays on "gale - bad person" and "ternité = dull, lusterless"



 And our three kiddos (not the girl on the right).  Farmer Boy's sign insists that "school in nature is better than school inside"; Sprout says she wants to be free; and Ti'Loup went with I.E.F. (instruction en famille) 
 

 

 

J's use of Nietzsche's quote; "(Macron), beware that, when fighting monsters, you yourself do not become a monster"

The other side of his sign said, "My school doesn't have walls"

______________________
* These thoughts were prompted by a question from queenoftheskies  who asked if kids are going to school here.  The answer is, now, yes.  However, in the spring, the government sent all of them home; families had to adapt, and guess what?  Many of them loved it, loved connecting with their kids and helping with their learning.  So the number of families who decided to home-school for this school year skyrocketed, which, as you probably guessed, caused a panic in the national educational system.  So now, we are in our second lockdown but kids are required to go to school, despite the fact that teachers cannot keep them safe, meaning the families are not safe either.  On the one hand, they shut down all sorts of services, small shops, restaurants, etc. but primary schools, enormous vectors of illness, are still up and running.