Daniel Pennac Quotes
Each country thinks its school is in a specific crisis, without ever linking the school's crisis to that of the society around it.
Pennac, Daniel. School Blues. Translated by Sarah Ardizzone, MacLehose Press, 2010.
Lankester was a preeminent scientist of his day and a leader of the conservative British establishment. Germany had a system of scientific education which at the time was the envy of most other sophisticated countries. It is noteworthy that he was the only conservative who was among the 9 mourners at the funeral of Karl Marx.
Oliver was a right wing, racist, fanatic and extremist. His quotations are interesting because he often said in public what many right wing extremists only said in private. Paranoia and conspiracy theories were common with the extremists, then as now. In this case, they actually believed that Communists had infiltrated and taken over the 30,000 different school districts in the United States.
Alabama. Mississippi and the other states of the South have from the inception of the nation had a much poorer educational system (often no system at all). Even when Jim Crow discrimination was rampant in the South, the white schools were very poor and the Black schools terrible. At the end of the 20th century after integration, there were more serious attempts to improve education in the South and progress is being made to reach parity with the rest of the country. However, there is still in many Southern school boards hostility to science and other aspects of modern education and Southern states tend to censor school texts and library books this weakening the educational system. But progress is being made.
Daniel Pennac is a French writer. He received the Prix Renaudot in 2007 for his essay Chagrin d'école.
