11-Novembre commemoration school boycott by teachers’ unions in France, Digi Mart USA News (France): Starting with the 2026 school year, all French schools must hold an annual commemorative ceremony honoring the “Morts pour la France” around the date of the November 11, 1918 armistice. The measure was announced by Education Minister Édouard Geffray in July, and it is now drawing opposition from several teachers’ unions.
In a circular published on July 2, Geffray announced the creation, beginning with the 2026 school year, of an annual tribute to all “Morts pour la France” in every elementary school, middle school and high school, whether public or private under contract. He wrote that “the School’s mission is to enable students to become citizens aware of sharing a common destiny,” and added: “Whatever each person’s individual path, France emancipates through what it shares: a collective heritage to which each of its children may lay claim.”
The initiative is not unanimously supported within the teaching profession. The SNES-FSU union has called for a boycott of the ceremony.
Sud Éducation criticized the idea of a school turned into an “antechamber of war,” while the FSU-SNUipp union described it as a measure of “acceptance of war.” The SNALC called it “a bad message.” Taken together, these organizations show a broad consensus of opposition.
Élisabeth Lévy, an editorialist, said on Sud Radio that the problem lies less with the circular than with the reactions to it. She said: “Teachers’ unions dare anything!
Not content with encouraging their students in their worst illusions during demonstrations, they refuse to let them pay tribute to those who died for them.”
Lévy argued that the circular took every necessary precaution to avoid confusion about the nature of the tribute. “It is not about celebrating war, but the peace won, the liberty preserved, the resilience of a people, with a Marseillaise at the end,” she said.
Lévy defended the role of teachers in transmitting history but dismissed the objection based on opinion. “Teachers have the right to have opinions and to keep them to themselves,” she said, adding: “Their job is to introduce students to a world that came before them, and to teach them gratitude for great authors and for all those who sacrificed their lives.”
She also considered that the school “is also the first place of assimilation, where children can take ownership of a history that is not their parents’,” echoing, in her words, the education minister’s formulation: “France emancipates through what it shares.” Concluding, she wrote: “Whether or not our ancestors were Gauls, on November 11, the poilus and the war memorials are our history, our shared memory for everyone.” For Lévy, while teachers cannot be forced to love French history, they have a duty to pass it on.
