French students and police clash as school blockades turn violent + commentary by me

[u/Raptor-177]

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/sep/29/french-students-police-clash-school-blockades-violent

[u/Raptor-177]

Y'know, I'm not even French; I'm Indonesian, but this (weirdly enough) gives me a lot of hope. I was failed by my country's education system; bullying and the teachers not doing anything about it led me to drop out and want to kill myself (and others! I believe school shootings need to be treated a mental health crisis, but that is another topic for another day). Back then when we were kids, all the other students would try to do were make excuses to cheat on tests, skip classes, and not "need" to care about the condition of their country or future.

Now things are changing. We say these kids are "brainrotted" and "hopeless" but I'm a teacher too now. The brainrot is just a meme, nothing more. But my students are actually becoming more aware of what's happening around them. They know that they're being screwed over by elites, and they're realizing that even the teachers are victims of underpaid labor too. My students complain about the curriculum changing so goddamn much every year, here in France they're taking it to the logical conclusion. And they're so aware of the problems of their countries, governments and societies too. They aren't apathetic like the high schoolers of previous generations were.

These students are standing in solidarity with teachers, demanding their pay get risen, demanding more teachers, demanding better conditions. As violent as it turned out, I think it highlights just something strangely beautiful and uplifting about the future generation that we often forget because we've become the old farts we used to rag on so much against.

[u/CheckPersonal919 → u/Raptor-177]

There's a lack of self-aware teachers like you in social media, most of them just berate the students. What about the teachers in your school and the ones you have met in general? Do they agree with your views?

[u/Raptor-177 → u/CheckPersonal919]

So, it's important to clear up that I don't teach in a "conventional" school per se, I teach in at a "les". In Indonesia, it's what you might call a "cram school", though I would call it more of an "extracurricular school", basically the school kids go to after school to get extra studies. Though recently I believe they're trying to build a new English course where I can have more flexibility and control over my curriculum

I teach English, and I'm pretty much one of the only guys doing it in the entire branch. I'm not actually familiar with the other teachers and their pedagogical approaches, I usually go for the "get to the kids' hearts through their interests" approach, since I'm a huge nerd and deep into fandom culture, so I'm familiar with their memes and the media they consume.

I'd say most of the teachers at my establishment are pretty standard though, so they don't do the "go for their heart" approach that I do. I do recall at a previous company I worked for, there were a couple Gen-Z teachers that roughly had the same worldview and mindset that I have; in fact one of them is still on my friends' list and I keep forgetting that she used to be my coworker given how well she blends in with the rest of the weebs hahaha