The teachers feared that the philosophy copies of the baccalaureate were not famous, and their intuition seems to have been confirmed … Because this year, it is the best mark that will be retained, between that obtained in the philosophy test and that of the control continuous, provided that the candidate has returned his copy.
A measure decided by Jean-Michel Blanquer to take into account the disturbances in high schools caused by the health crisis. Suddenly, on the day of the event, last June 17, many testimonies reported the hasty departure of many candidates well before the end of the event. “As we feared, many copies were written very quickly by students who were not motivated by the test, because the stake was too low”, notes Nicolas Franck, president of the Association of Philosophy Teachers of public education.
“Many candidates have written over the pen, made off topic”
He himself corrected 110 copies, which he considered overall “of very poor quality”. “They were very talkative, but without any content. I felt the plan had been vaguely sketched out, but the draft step had been skipped. Many candidates have written over the pen, made off topic ”. Benoît, a teacher in the Yvelines, had 115 copies to correct, of very different quality: “Some were very good, but I received many more very low copies than usual. Besides, the average of my packet was 8/20, whereas it usually reaches 10 or 11. Example: essays that were not, very short copies, non-philosophical chatter … ” .
André *, a teacher in the Créteil academy, also observed strong inequalities in the rendering of the pupils: “On 140 copies, I observed that some had played the game, but that others knew very well that they didn’t need to get a good grade. Suddenly, my grades ranged from 2/20 to 18/20. And a lot of the students did short homework over one or two pages, with a very low level of syntax and spelling ”.
“A colleague was entitled to a copy written in Morse code”
The correctors had difficulty finding quotes from authors in the copies: “They contained few philosophical references, and the candidates relied a lot on ready-made ideas,” notes Nicolas Franck. If each year, the correctors are entitled to unusual references or to rantings whose originality does not make the relevance, they were again served this year: “A colleague was entitled to a copy written in Morse code, another in Basque ”, chokes Nicolas Franck. “A candidate told me Robin, Batman’s sidekick,” Benoît laments. “It is not the intellectual level of the candidates that has fallen, but their academic culture,” says André. This lack of depth is partly explained by the health situation: “The students who have been in half-gauge since November have not worked regularly enough. However, we need time to build a philosophical culture. The fact that they had little or no work on the table also harmed their intellectual training, ”explains Benoît.
And the problems of method were glaring in many copies, as Benoît underlines: “Many had difficulty understanding the subject, did not analyze the statement. I did not find the rigor that I expected ”. “They have ideas, are relevant, but have struggled to structure their thinking. The developments are less thorough and their copies have shown impatience and a lack of concentration, ”adds André.
“My correction work was sad”
These low-end copies complicated the work of the correctors: “The marking was difficult and very tedious. I decided to promote the intellectual approach, but it was not obvious in many copies. Suddenly, my correction work was sad, without any interest, ”Judge Nicolas Franck. “In front of some botched copies, I had the feeling that my work was devalued”, also confides André. The notes harmonization commissions, which have just ended, have not been easy, moreover.
However, the philosophy professors do not seem to blame the candidates who slackened off: “I met one of my good students who had left the room after 1 hour 45 minutes,” Nicolas Franck declares. I asked him why he had given up so quickly. He replied: “It is the ordeal that has abandoned me”. And I cannot throw stones at him ”.
* First name has been changed