Photo: AFP
The last week in France has shown humanity as its worst and at its best.
First there was the terrible massacre of journalists, cartoonists and the police, and the cowardly slaughter of shoppers in a supermarket simply because they were Jewish.
But then came the overwhelming public response, culminating in Sunday's marches, which attracted some 3.7 million people across France.
The worst of times, the best of times, indeed.
In the background, meanwhile, there was the worrying reaction of a small minority of the nation's schoolchildren.
While most youngsters took part in the minute’s silence last Thursday and joined the 'Je suis Charlie' campaign, this minority saw things different.
According to various media reports in France (see here and here) some pupils refused to take part in the silent tribute or disrupted it.
In one junior school in the Paris suburbs, for example, 80 percent of one class initially declined to take part, though their teacher eventually persuaded half of them to do so.
Their reasons?
Many apparently were already – just 24 hours after the slaughter – lapping up the absurd conspiracy theories about the attack (the Americans or the Israelis did it, etc etc).
It also seems many of the youngsters who are doubtful about supporting the 'Je suis Charlie' line – mostly though not all from Muslim families of North African origins – were simply echoing the views of their parents.
'My mum says they [the Charlie Hebdo team] were asking for it,' one child told a teacher.
A number of others told a teacher: 'Personally I'm for those who killed them.'
One pupil at a collége or middle school in Grenoble calmly raised her hand in class and said: 'Miss, you can't let the Prophet be insulted in a cartoon, it's natural that one seeks revenge.'
Now, as I say, this was a very small minority and in most schools the minute's silence and the classroom debates that accompanied them (for the older children) there was none of this extraordinary attitude.
And even in classes where doubts were raised about the need for silence or national mourning ('why should we respect a minute's silence for people we didn’t' know?', asked one pupil) most were eventually convinced by their teachers explanations about the need to mark the tragedy.
Well done to the teachers.
But when you have even just a small number of young children blithely supporting the slaughter of people because of the things they have drawn you can understand why the French education system feels it needs to react.
Education minister Najat Vallaud-Belkacem has thus launched what she called a 'reinforced mobilisation' based on the teaching of 'Republican values' in French schools.
'Among the main aims of Republic's schools role is to maintain the values of Liberté, Egalité and Fraternité,' says the minister.
Let's hope the message gets across.
