Overseas Briefing Poiters or Perfection?

Author: Livingston Burgess

POITIERS - "The chairs will be rearranged once the movement is over."

So proclaimed the chalkboard at the
front of yet another empty lecture hall, as I sighed and bummed the university wireless
network, since my otherwise lovely room
outside downtown Poitiers lacks Internet.

For two weeks now, classes at the University of Poitiers have come to a halt as students and professors strike in response to the new policies of the educational establishment. I can't hope to explain or comprehend the list of "revindications" leveled against the government, but to give an idea, a central complaint is the downsizing of some thousands of post-secondary teaching posts.

The words on that chalkboard struck me as an excellent summary of the link, in the French national consciousness, between the actions of a central authority and a slightly listless pack of twenty-year-olds clad in virtually identical black wool
"manteaux" intent on preventing me from
learning about Descartes' contributions to
Renaissance thought. They also reminded
me of a gulf, both subtle and immense, that
I have observed between French and American mentalities. As far as I've constructed
it, it boils down to this: the French believe in perfectibility; Americans believe in perfection.

The French public university is not
without its faults. Administration is diffuse and incoherent; professor communication is haphazard. The buildings look like the unfortunate product of aliens trying to mate with the local landscape. It possesses, however, one marked advantage, in that it is virtually free. To everyone. It's a major outlook adjustment coming from the land of the infamous $50K price tag.

The French recognize that this system
is good, and relatively fair. However, the
innate French belief in perfectibility tells them it can be better. The chain of thought goes like this: the French are perfect (an implicit assertion I have never heard here, but always felt), therefore the system is perfectible. If the chairs have to be thrown out of whack in the process of perfection, so be it. They will be rearranged when the movement is over.

Americans, on the other hand, believe
in the perfection of their systems. Democracy is the prime example, along with welfare-state capitalism and whichever side of the designated hitter rule they come down on (whatever you think, I disagree with you). The structure is fine. It is ourselves that we find lacking