There's a great petition of principle from the Minister: "enable each child to become, through education, a free and informed citizen."
But the project offers multiple renunciations and many setbacks. The most symbolic renunciation of two strong cycles in the organization and the common core of knowledge and skills, which are reported as a secondary way, as against the heart.
The "cycles" have introduced flexibility in learning. .. we are talking again of "divisions" with their annual rate and terminology inherited from the nineteenth century. Certainly, parents will recognize it better, but we are likely to lose the gains of the dynamic organization of multi-annual work.
be understood by parents seems the main concern, hence the return to words, references and vocabulary that was used until the 60's: the case of teaching of language is striking, with the return to the grammar of Port Royal. Let us be reassured that for the youngest, it "focuses almost exclusively on the simple sentence: the complex sentence is only addressed in CM2. Side
citizen training, can not speak more of education but appraisal. Children should acquire to 8 years' initial understanding of the symbols of the Republic ": The Marseillaise (We get up for it), the tricolor flag, the bust of Marianne, or the motto "Liberty, Equality, Fraternity." I bet that this is all very formal!
For 11 years they have learned mutual respect and the collective rules, they have also learned the principles of equality for girls and boys, the dignity of the person. Not bad ... a little education for Human Rights would be even better: to know the Declarations of 1789 and 1948 would be better than adherence tricolor flag !
All this smells of nostalgia, the 50s, the return to the contents and practices that could be adapted to their age, but can not meet the needs of children of the XXI century. Despite good intentions and some good points, one has the feeling that the authors confuse "primary" and "mechanical", "Basic" and "utilitarian."
