Thursday, January 18, at the end of class time, like everywhere else, many mothers, a few fathers and several babysitters crowd in front of the gates of the Stanislas college, which brings together three thousand five hundred students from primary to preparatory classes. . First, it’s the little ones who come out. A sea of down jackets, hats and pain au chocolat, lots of navy blue and mostly white faces.
“Marine, Claire, Alexandre, hurry up”, warns a mother who takes her troop to the bus stop. Everything happens very quickly under the surveillance of the employee of the establishment who looks suspiciously at the journalists who wander among the parents. The private Catholic establishment in the 6th arrondissement of Paris is at the center of a controversy which has continued unabated since we learned in the wake of its appointment that the new Minister of National Education, Amélie Oudéa-Castéra, was attending school there. their children.
The parents, faced with press articles which publish damning information about “Stan” every day, are on edge. Several television and radio teams crowd in front of the middle school students: “Are sneakers really banned at “Stan”? » “Do girls and boys really live separately within the establishment? » The questions abound and the college students crowd around the journalists. Indeed, sneakers are prohibited and correct clothing is required. Yes, the girls’ and boys’ buildings are indeed separate at the middle school, where only two classes are mixed.
“For now, RAS, we are delighted”
Pierre (first names have been changed) and his wife, Clémence, are expecting their daughter who should be released soon. “She’s in fifth grade. Our son, Victor, is in first grade. We work in real estate, we live in 15e : as we feel that we must justify ourselves, I point out that we are not particularly rich or super traditional. We wanted a Catholic school, but I don’t see what the problem is. There is a discrepancy between the descriptions old school that we see in the press and what we experience”, they explain, alongside their eldest son who has just come out of class, wearing a black down jacket, jeans and walking shoes. “I confirm, my friends are not fascists”, the teenager laughs.
First, there was the minister’s blunder on January 12, who justified her choice of elitist private Catholic education for her three sons by the failings of the public, in this case the school on rue Littré , located a few hundred meters from Stanislas, from where she had taken her son. Then came the publication, on January 16, by Mediapart of the damning report produced in July 2023 by the general education inspectorate. And, finally, the revelation that Stanislas would have circumvented, for thirty-eight students, including the minister’s son, the rules of Parcoursup. The bourgeoisie likes discretion and does not appreciate this hustle and bustle at all. Few agree to give their impressions and all do so under cover of anonymity.
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