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Education for Citizenship and Youth in France
JOURNAL OF YOUTH RESEARCHES
“school citizenship” today is based on a skeptical opposition to some. The question
arises from: How is it possible to reconcile the use of citizenship, which is seen as
adult status, with the status of being a student in school age? In other words, it cannot
be argued that a non-adult is in the capacity to practice the teachings of the given
civic education (Arendt, 1989).
Conclusion
In a nutshell, since the historical period, the national education understanding that
emerged in parallel with the development process of the nation-state has shown an
improvement towards creating individualism restricted by collective interests, abstra-
cted from the phenomenon of religion. In this context, traditional attitudes and behavi-
ors, although constituting the core of the education system, have been the foreground
of active citizenship education aimed at raising self-repetition and increasingly auto-
nomous and free individuals in the face of current developments. However, this does
not mean that individuals who have a conflicting attitude towards common interests
are raised. On the contrary, it has been the basic aim of the education system to
educate young people who, by their own consciousness will, to advance the common
interests of society and the state, embrace democratic and libertarian values for com-
munity’s unity and to internalize the concept of “common benefit”. In this educational
sense, individualism is complementary and not opposed to collectivist idea.
On the individual-state axis, the relationship between autonomy and collectivity, the
education of citizenship in France has been predominantly directed at the teaching of
national affiliation, especially at the elementary level, even though the content of the
educational program emerges from the national borders and gradually becomes more
universal in the European axis (Percheron, 1984). In particular, the voluntary commit-
ment to France spiritually around republican values (equality, freedom) seems to have
settled in students on the basis of the concept of “national pride”. Priority must be
given to school education, which assumes the most important role in educating future
citizens, in order to be functional, it must be build a collective feeling linked both to
the individual will and the national interest by adapting to developments in the face
of globalization. The most important thing that France can achieve in this sense is
that it can create Republican individualism, which excludes the church in the national
education system, and exclusively attaches importance to the state. Only in this way,
individuals from different cultural backgrounds can unite around a common ideal,
providing the areas of development and freedom provided by individualism. This has
