“Good luck for the young people… We will have to adapt and make this job more attractive. This job is that of a school teacher. A profession practiced by Aude and Franck for more than twenty years. This couple from Saint-Mars-du-Désert, a town north of Nantes, has never left the teaching staff since leaving the IUFM (University Institute for Teacher Training) where they met. He is a school teacher as a substitute holder. She has now been a school principal for five years.
A profession that fascinates them. But who, sometimes, uses them too. Especially since the start of the health crisis and the implementation of protocols. “I have had a lot of replacement requests since the arrival of the Covid”, explains Franck, for whom the role of replacement pushes for permanent adaptation. “But there are still plenty of incumbents who have not been replaced, and I’m not talking to you about what it was like when we couldn’t mix up the classes…”, says the fifty-year-old.
Covid-proof
For her part, Aude believes that “the good relations of the school with the town hall” allow her to work well on a daily basis, even if it is necessary “to be in the relationship and diplomacy” with the parents. On the other hand, her husband has noticed wear and tear in some, from the “burn-out” of school teachers to “overwrought directors”. “The pressure from parents is growing. The teacher is no longer seen as a respected person”, explains Franck, a little disillusioned. However, a hint of optimism is revealed in this period of health crisis, where the work of the teaching staff has been highlighted: “It allowed some parents to see all the work it was for us”. Then the school teacher goes on and tempers his remarks: “But people quickly forget. A bit like this idea of the next world, put forward by Macron ”.
Aude embraces the policy of the current government in favor of education. With a pedagogy which tends to be individualized around each child, the teachers had to adapt: “From now on, we no longer prepare a dictation for the class but three levels of dictation, for example. It helps the kids but we were never given more time to deal with it. Franck adds: “And Macron said that it will take 30 minutes of sport a day next year! But how ? »
“Not disgusted though”
The name of the current Head of State is then enough to launch discussions on the current race for the Elysée. “A non-campaign”, believes Franck. As for Aude, she rolls her eyes. Considering herself “far” from these passionate debates on politics, she will vote on Sunday, but without much conviction. Opposite, Franck, more optimistic, follows the presidential campaign with attention and regularly maintains fiery debates within the family circle, with his three sons. In particular, he hopes to see social inequalities reduced during the next five-year term.
Not to mention the pension reform, which he claims to be “resolutely against”. “I’m more afraid for our children. At what age will they stop? Especially since he finds that his profession attracts less and less young people. “But we’re not disgusted with the job either, unlike some colleagues,” he tempers.
“Not pessimistic for me, but for my grandchildren”
Another theme on the menu of their concerns: security. Especially since one of their sons was attacked several times in Nantes. Then the couple continues on the news: from the Covid to the conflict in Ukraine, via the cost of fuel… “On purchasing power, we are not to complain. But we see families in difficulty at school, especially single parents, ”explains Aude, who has a hard time, like Franck, seeing the arrival of better days. “It’s true that we hear more and more people around us who say that they would no longer have a child today, seeing the international situation or the ecological challenges that await us”, launches Franck. “I am not pessimistic for myself. I am for my future grandchildren, ”adds the school principal.
Moreover, Aude does not yet know who will get her vote this Sunday. But her number one fear remains abstention, which she dreads with apprehension: “That’s what scares me the most”.