In her recent Futuribles article on ‘Schooling, Democracy and Citizenship’, Najat Vallaud-Belkacem made the timely point that schooling does not exist solely to transmit academic knowledge but also to ‘enable the young to acquire critical thinking skills, confront otherness in all its forms, and learn to live together’. She stressed the essential role it should have in ‘encouraging children to behave, from their earliest years, as engaged citizens, capable of seeing themselves as playing a full part in democratic life’. If that concern does not seem to be a priority nationally, it is, nonetheless, a priority at the local level, as is attested here by Émilie Kuchel, who chairs the French Network of Educating Cities.
The article is downloadable only in French. It is not available in English.
