But of course, alongside this, there is an entire network of private schools, religious or otherwise, some of which are described as alternative schools, drawing on the work of great educational thinkers such as Decroly, Freinet, Montessori, Steiner, and many others... there are countless such schools! And of course, it is infinitely preferable to "send" one's child to school (what an awful term!) in one of these than in the public system, which is reserved for the vulgum pecus.

Apart from libertarian schools, which did not last very long (see RADICALLY FREE !), access to these "alternative" schools is, of course, determined by the parents' income and social position. As they say, parents have to be able to afford it. We are therefore dealing with a respectable form of elitism, and these privileged children will not join the underpaid proletariat of the ever-growing masses living "below the poverty line."

And increasingly, we hear increasingly fierce—and, it must be said, well-founded—criticism of existing institutions that claim to be educational but are in fact nothing more than systems of conditioning and indoctrination, with the French national education system unquestionably being the prime example. The diagnosis is entirely justified: mass education is indeed nothing more than conditioning and standardization throughout the world. But the question arises, and it is a crucial one: who is actually doing anything to change this? Who is working to change things? Some parents, aware of the disaster and unwilling to have their children spend years in the harmful environment of state schools, practice what is commonly known as "home schooling," bearing in mind that the legal conditions governing this option are subject to increasing restrictions, particularly in France, and that such parents must have the time, the skills, and the means to provide this kind of education for their children.

This is where Terence addresses teachers throughout the world, of whom there are legions! And he does so as a teacher himself, one who once worked in the French national education system. Having now reached a certain age—or, rather, an advanced age—he thinks of all those children, the hundreds of millions of children who are born and grow up in every corner of the world, in prosperous and wealthy countries as well as in poor and destitute ones. He thinks of all these newly incarnated souls (fully aware of what such words may evoke in Cartesian and spiritually disenchanted minds...), these children who, according to the familiar expression, are the future of humanity.

In reality, it is not you they want; it is me. You must put yourselves between them and me. 

And he takes the liberty of addressing all those who practice this profession of teaching, wherever they may be in this desperately chaotic world. Whether they chose this path or not, whether it was the result of social determinism or a "calling" (such an immense word!), or simply a default choice, he appeals to their conscience—for of course they have one—and to their awareness of what is happening and what is taking shape day after day for the human beings we still are, and for those whom they are entrusted to educate. 

They know it perfectly well: the contradiction is immense, almost immeasurable, between what should be provided to children so that they can learn and flourish in freedom, and what they are required to offer and impose upon them within this framework of conditioning—learning programmes that involve acquiring knowledge often disconnected from any useful reality, in a climate of competition, obedience, and submission.

They know it perfectly well: they can come to terms with this awareness, suppress it, but it is inevitably painful. And it is precisely this conscience that is being appealed to, because they have the ability to influence these systems. They can stand up to manipulative hierarchies. Given the state humanity is in, they have a duty to do so. They can awaken in young people the expansion of consciousness that is necessary and that Life itself simply demands. Of course, there are no ready-made recipes for this; this website merely offers suggestions and possible paths to explore. But please, explore them before dismissing these ideas as fanciful.

This world has reached such a degree of manipulation, corruption, and self-destruction that we must now be capable of SAYING NO! and of learning to SAY NO!.

Before concluding, we should remember the etymology of the word education: educare: to raise, to nourish, but also to lead out! Everything is contained in that little four-letter word: OUT!

And to conclude, let us turn to a great twentieth-century French writer, who ended his Letter to the Peasants on Poverty and Peace in 1938 with these words:

"To heal from the plague is not to go backwards; it is to return to health. It is to withdraw from evil. Intelligence lies in withdrawing from evil."
Jean GIONO (1895–1970)

* An interesting history of this mutual school system, which was not limited to France HERE.

** The great republican icon who advocated the existence of "inferior races." Did he not declare before the National Assembly in 1885: "Superior races have a right over inferior races. They have a duty to civilize inferior races."

And if you have read this text all the way to the end, may we suggest a few others that are, of course, related to education—and whose author is not Terence?

- A Coded Software — Fabien MOINE
- The Mark of Life — Vimala THAKAR
- I Condemn Ignorance... — Marguerite YOURCENAR
- We Are Taught to Be Slaves — Claire SEVERAC
- At School... — Julian WOLFMIND
- Since the Beginning... — Alexis HAUPT
- Dreamed-of Disciplines — Julien PERONS

And finally, let us spare A Thought for Socrates.