Libération suggests that elements of the right wing are reopening the old wounds of private versus public education to stoke Catholic opposition to gay marriage and parenting rights.
Article source: “Mariage gay à l’école : la droite veut sa part de cathos”, Véronique Soulé, Libération, 06/01/2013
Photo: Pierre Verdy, AFP.
ANALYSIS — Minister of Education Vincent Peillon's letter reminding Catholic schools to respect their obligation of neutrality has allowed the opposition to raise the spectre of the guerre scolaire: the war over private education.
By the grace of God, the controversy over gay marriage has finally reached the schools. The call to organise debates on the subject, launched by the leader of the Catholic Education system in France, has further stiffened opposition between the left and right. And teaching now finds itself swept up in a highly politicised debate, which runs the risk of reigniting the “public-private war”, and, more pressingly, of ramping up the anti-gay marriage protests scheduled for January 13th with claims that the government is dogmatic and “Cathophobic”.
It all started with the letter Eric de Labarre, head of the Catholic Education system (which makes up the greater part of private schools, accounting for 20% of all French schoolchildren), sent on December 12th to his 8,500 headteachers. In reference to the proposed legislation, the letter encouraged “every primary, middle, and high school to take the most suitable course of action to allow everyone to exercise a fully informed liberty of conscience concerning the choices which are being considered today by public officials”. In other words, he was proposing dialogue concerning a bill that the Catholic Education system openly opposes.
“Vigilance.” As supporters of both camps engage in tit for tat protests, his proposal seems suspect. On December 22nd, the French teachers' union UNSA-Education denounced what it called “religious hypocrisy”, seeing the letter as a “thinly veiled call to demonstrate”. On Thursday, the main private school teachers' union, the FEP-CFDT, stated that “it's more likely that [Labarre's] letter will fuel partisan or sectarian action than inspire informed debate.” But it's Friday's letter from the Minister of Education which sparked outrage from the right as they returned to work from Christmas festivities. In the name of “neutrality” in schools, Vincent Peillon urged school district supervisors to be “extremely vigilant” concerning debates in private schools. He also expressed concerns about “homophobic stigmatisation and ostracisation” which could accompany debates, reminding them that “suicide rates among young homosexuals are five times higher than among young heterosexuals”. The letter went on to accuse Labarre of having made “an error”.
The two men come from radically different cultural backgrounds. Vincent Peillon, a former philosophy teacher and staunch defender of secular education in schools, wrote an entire book on the secularist thinker Ferdinand Buisson. Today, the idea of reviving an old divisive issue about identity hardly seems to bother Peillon, especially in light of former President Nicolas Sarkozy's questionable policies. Sarkozy had proclaimed, in December 2007, that “teachers will never replace priests and preachers when it comes to transmitting moral values and teaching right from wrong”.
On Saturday, Peillon received François Hollande's blessing, as the president called for “neutrality” in private schools. The Minister can also count on widespread support from the teaching community, which is wary of any attempt at proselytism in schools where teachers are paid by the government (since almost all Catholic schools are governed by State contracts). Yet some, such as the FCPE (France's largest parents’ association), are in favour of discussing social issues in class, but only in strict settings with trained teachers.
Eric de Labarre, who does not openly support any political faction, seems like a classic champion of the right. During Nicolas Sarkozy's term, he acknowledged the need to eliminate teaching positions to ease government debt. Meanwhile, he took care of his own flock, using his connections to curb job cuts in private schools.
His goal, since taking on the job of Director of the Catholic Education system in 2009, has been more spiritual: to reinforce the “autonomy” of private schools—transmitting Christian values along with more traditional learning. This was why in 2011 he fought the addition of gender theory to the Life and Earth Sciences (SVT) curriculum, and why today he opposes gay marriage, distinguishing it from “the union of one man and one woman” and “families in which the responsibility of raising a child is held by a mother and father”.
Cathophobia. Only a week before the upcoming protest which will be attended by Jean-François Copé, this opportunity provided an unhoped-for boon to right-wing supporters spoiling for a fight. On Friday evening, the former Minister of Higher Education, Laurent Wauquiez, a practicing Catholic, condemned “massive political manipulation which aims to make Christians feel guilty.” He said that the government was full of “hatred and contempt for religions, especially Catholicism”, and denounced the pervasive atmosphere of “Cathophobia”. Yesterday, former Minister of Education, Luc Chatel accused the executive branch of wanting to “revive the war over the private school system”, which in June 1984, during François Mitterrand's presidency, had motivated one million people to march in the streets of Paris in opposition to the proposed fusion of public and private education. As for Christine Boutin of the Christian-Democrat party, she criticised the government's double standards, citing Najat Vallaud-Belkacem’s visit to a middle school on October 15th in which the government spokeswoman spoke on homophobia and lauded gay marriage.
The risk is that the turmoil might fuel the January 13th protest. Yesterday, Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet of the UMP told Libération that “if [she] hadn't previously made plans to protest, [she] would no longer exclude the possibility, if it turned out that the protest became a march against the government's bigotry”.
Translation: Charles Eddy and Adrien Martel
Editing: Sam Trainor