{"id":54219,"date":"2020-09-30T12:35:18","date_gmt":"2020-09-30T19:35:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/world.edu\/?p=54219"},"modified":"2020-09-30T12:35:18","modified_gmt":"2020-09-30T19:35:18","slug":"uniform-at-school-the-eternal-debate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/world.edu\/uniform-at-school-the-eternal-debate\/","title":{"rendered":"Uniform at school, the eternal debate?"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\nUnder the hashtags #balancetonbahut and # 14septembre, middle school and high school girls have been claiming since the start of the school year the right to dress as they wish, pointing to the sexism of schools that are\u00a0more strict<\/a>\u00a0with regard to the outfits worn by girls than by those of boys.<\/p>\n

Questioned on this subject by RTL on September 21, the Minister of National Education Jean-Michel Blanquer declared that it was necessary to come “to school dressed in\u00a0a Republican way<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0“.\u00a0An expression that has since caused much ink to flow, reactivating the debate on the\u00a0return of the uniform<\/a>\u00a0to the classroom.<\/p>\n

However, contrary to what is sometimes argued, there has never been a national policy in France to impose the\u00a0wearing of uniforms<\/a>\u00a0in primary or secondary schools.\u00a0One only has to look at old class photos – and there are thousands of them on the Internet – to see firsthand that there have never been uniforms in the metropolitan public primary.\u00a0And, if many students wore blouses, they were more or less disparate.<\/p>\n

Establishment distinction<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Yet it was in these\u00a0communal schools<\/a>\u00a0, more marked by socio-cultural diversity, that the question of equality, often invoked for the fantasized imposition of the uniform, could have arisen the most.\u00a0However, it is the establishments where there was a certain socio-cultural selection which in the past made their pupils wear uniforms – or uniform blouses – namely in many private establishments, but also in certain public secondary establishments, generally more upscale.<\/p>\n

These uniforms were above all a sign of establishment distinction (in all senses of the word), the highlighting of belonging to a selected community, even of \u201cestablishment patriotism\u201d.\u00a0And the least that can be said is that educational equality was not the dominant concern in this case.<\/p>\n

In the rather distant past, many wore disparate smocks to the communal school, admittedly.\u00a0But many children also wore the gown at home.\u00a0In reality, mothers preferred to wash the blouse rather than the sweater, all the more so as the constant threat of ink spattering from the “sergeant major’s pen” hovered at school.\u00a0The gowns started to disappear in the 1960s, when the Bic point replaced it.<\/p>\n

In the past, there has been more pressure to wear the uniform in female public secondary schools than in their male counterparts because the concern to train \u201cyoung girls in a row\u201d may have been more significant than that of normalizing young people.<\/p>\n

Many of these young girls, however, tried to trick with the standardization of outfits imposed on them.\u00a0And they sometimes reached compromises that could be funny, for example the obligation, to wear pants, to put over a pleated skirt in order to give the appearance of going in the direction of the regulations.<\/p>\n

Turning of the 2000s<\/strong><\/h4>\n

For the past twenty years or so, we have regularly witnessed attempts to bring the question of the school uniform into full public debate.\u00a0More often than not, in order to build on the authority of a tradition that would be lost, it is claimed that it would be a return to a lamented past.\u00a0And quite often, it is claimed that this return should be made in the name of “equality”.\u00a0But, depending on the moment, it also happens that this is not the only reason given.\u00a0And it would be wrong to ignore it.<\/p>\n

With regard to ministerial initiatives, we must first mention those of\u00a0Xavier Darcos<\/a>\u00a0which will be reiterated and elicit diverse, but significant reactions among high-ranking political leaders generally belonging to the right.\u00a0On December 14, 2003, then Minister Delegate for School Education, he publicly declared that<\/p>\n

\u201cThe question of the uniform in class deserves to be asked.\u00a0The clothes which indicate the social origins of the pupils do not correspond to the spirit of a class where everyone must be respectful of others \u201d.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This declaration\u00a0was<\/a>\u00a0shortly\u00a0preceded<\/a>\u00a0by those of Fran\u00e7ois Baroin and Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres evoking the “return of gray aprons” to fight against children “fashions victims” and especially to fight the “rise of communalism and the veil at school. “.\u00a0From the start, the question of the \u201creturn\u201d of the \u201cuniform to school\u201d is at least of variable geometry (in its expectations as in its forms).\u00a0And that will not stop, quite the contrary.<\/p>\n

Xavier Darcos’ supervisory minister (namely\u00a0Luc Ferry<\/a>\u00a0, then Minister of National Education) replied sharply to the Minister for School Education that \u201cwearing a uniform is no longer possible.\u00a0All those who say that the only way to defend the Republic is to return to the pen Sergeant Major weakens the Republican idea \u201d.\u00a0Nothing is therefore decided.<\/p>\n

In 2007, and for the first time in a program for the presidential elections,\u00a0Philippe de Villiers<\/a>\u00a0advocated “compulsory wearing of the school uniform and the tricolor flag hoisted in all playgrounds”.\u00a0From there, and it is a new variant of the \u201cschool uniform\u201d UFO, this unprecedented association will have a certain posterity in certain later proposals.<\/p>\n

Policy petitions?<\/strong><\/h4>\n

In May 2008, Xavier Darcos became Minister (this time full-time) of National Education.\u00a0On January 18, 2009, on a\u00a0visit to London<\/a>\u00a0, he did not promote the “gray blouse of yesteryear” or a uniform itself, but the wearing of a logo T-shirt which indicated “belonging to the ‘establishment’.\u00a0Here again, both the expectations and the shape of the school uniform once again vary.\u00a0But, in the end, nothing is decided.\u00a0And Prime Minister Fran\u00e7ois Fillon does not manifest himself in any way.<\/p>\n

It was not until November 2011 that Prime Minister\u00a0Fran\u00e7ois Fillon<\/a>\u00a0declared in a public meeting that he was delighted<\/p>\n

\u201cThe proposal made by several of the UMP parliamentarians to experiment with the establishment of uniform clothing in some of our schools.\u00a0Uniform dress would be a sign that at school there is no class difference, no social difference.\u00a0It is one of the strong elements of republican integration \u201d.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

But nothing actually happened on this subject until May 2012, when Fran\u00e7ois Fillon had to give way to Jean-Marc Ayrault following the presidential election.<\/p>\n

This does not prevent Fran\u00e7ois Fillon from reiterating the proposal in August 2013, or from declaring in a column published in the \u201cFigaro\u201d of May 7, 2015 that it is \u201cin favor of all students wearing uniform clothing in order to create a spirit of community and avoid quarrels over clothing brands or the length of skirts \u201d.<\/p>\n