Paul from Paris

A recent opinion poll showed that French people are pessimistic. Indeed,the French were the most pessimistic of the 53 countries that BVA polled. Its poll centered on the economic outlook for 2011, and most French respondents expect the economic climate to worsen and employment levels to fall.

Why such pessimism? How can it be squared with other polls that show the French to enjoy superior quality of life and widespread material comfort?

For years, I’ve heard French people –especially outwardly successful people– voice exaggerated caution about future prospects, along the lines of: we’ll be lucky to make it through the winter. After having heard these musings repeatedly and consistently over the years, I discount the pessimism expressed in an opinion poll; or, more exactly, suspect that pessimism points towards a few, distinctly French social tropes or memes.

First among these is a social prohibition against bragging. No one likes a show-off. Accomplishment or success may be prized or cherished, but its holder commits a gaffe if he publicly comments on it. Partly this prohibition expresses modesty, but it is also a prophylactic against envy: as Tocqueville observed, in today’s democratic society, giving voice to good fortune can spark resentment among one’s fellows.

There also seems to be a French folkway, reminiscent of the Icarus story, where the act of foreseeing or expecting great things in the future somehow hobbles or handicaps the doer. Until recently –in living memory– France was an agrarian society, where the land’s yield remained uncertain until harvest. Drought or flood or a heat spell or a cold snap could shatter clever plans, as will be familiar to readers of Pagnol’s Jean de Florette.

Finally, an expression of pessimism also signals anxiety about loss. As Rousseau reasoned, fear off loss can outweigh the pleasure of possession. What was true in France more than 200 years ago remains pertinent today. To some extent, French respondents may express pessimism precisely because they have much to lose.

Paris elementary school, built before coeducation

Boys and girls go to school together in France. It has not always been thus. Coeducation in France is comparatively recent.

In 1886, a law was passed to authorize elementary coeducation in very small hamlets, with a population under 500. In my imagination, these would be one-room schools. This was clearly the exception; the norm was separate schooling for boys and girls. Even in small towns (with a population over 500), there would be two schools: one for boys, another for girls.

This situation continued through the two world wars and the postwar reconstruction.

In France, the emergence of coeducation is contemporaneous with the birth of the European political project:

• in 1959, coeducation became possible in newly-built high schools;
• in 1963, middle schools moved towards coeducation;
• in 1975, coeducation became the norm in public schools.

Today, only a sliver of French schoolchildren attend a single-sex school. In my Paris neighborhood, even parochial schools that seem friendly to reactionary causes are coeducational.

French people seem to place great stock in opinion polls. The Wyeth foundation for child and adolescent health recently commissioned a survey carried out by French pollster Ipsos. The heart of the survey, as I read it, concerned difference, normalcy, and conformity. But the part of the survey that received intensive media attention in France concerned sex or gender difference. Reports tended to underscore conservative or retrograde gender roles espoused by teens.

Some of the survey results will come as no surprise. For example, teen-age boys report spending more time than girls on video games and sports; teenage girls say they spend more time than boys on the telephone or doing household chores. This having been said, the self-reported difference on time spent on household chores was 0.1 hour, or six minutes, per day, on average. (Some parents of teens may express surprise that either boys or girls reported spending even six minutes a day on household chores.)

Attention given to other survey results seems mostly to reflect preoccupations of newspaper readers or television viewers. For example, 92% of teenage girls surveyed agree that men and women should share household chores, a position shared by (only) 69% of boys, with less strength in conviction. (Although the adolescents surveyed apparently live at home, the poll does not seem to have solicited views whether children should assume primary responsibility for household chores.)

Americans’ opinion of France is increasingly positive, according to the findings of a survey by the Pew Research Center for People & the Press.

Pew regularly surveys Americans on how they view various countries. As with other European countries, traditionally close to the United States, American’s view of France is positive, as it is for Germany or the United Kingdom. Today, 62% of those polled have a positive view of France.

The interesting point, however, is longitudinal: Americans’ view of France has been steadily improving, or recovering, following a disenchantment over military action in Iraq.

In 2003, only 29% of Americans polled had a favorable view of France. This fraction climbed to 46% in 2005 and to 48% in 2007. Today, it stands at 62%. Political change on both sides of the Atlantic probably has something to do with this recent boost.

French teens (age 14-17) have a good understanding of their parents’ work life.

That’s the first point I got from the latest report by the French interministerial delegation on the family‘s Observatory of parenthood and the workplace.

French teens know what their parents do for a living. They talk with their parents about their jobs several times a week, and most teens have visited their parents’ workplace.

Given this awareness, I was surprised by the second point I got from this research: teens are most likely –53% for fathers, 45% for mothers– to describe their parents’ careers as stressful and tiresome. In other words, what comes to mind first, when teens think about the work world, is a negative view.

I’m speculating, but am left with the impression that the more teens know about their parents’ jobs, the more negative they become.

I’m curious whether similar attitudes are observed elsewhere in Europe. I’m also curious to what extent the negative views can be attributed to adolescence, and to what extent they stem from differences between school and business.