Several times during this course we have pointed to how the American Economy’s greatest asset is unparalleled innovation. When Japan was poised to surpass the US by the 90’s they didn’t in part because of demographics and in part because their growth was due to optimizing rather than creating new technologies. US innovation is often attributed to two major factors that are linked: the quality of US higher education and government investment in fundamental science research.

However it may not be simply the quality of Higher Education that is important. Perhaps the style of education is the key variable. A higher education environment that promotes divergent thinking may be measurably better for an economy than one that simply promotes the retention and replication of preexisting knowledge.

For the past 30+ years France has been in a prolonged recession, worsened only by the 2008 global recession. People have attributed France’s historically stagnant economy to a myriad of factors: Poor leadership, inflated bureaucracy, high tax burdens.

Most foreign coverage of French economics I have come across re-iterates these points year after year. These articles are just a sample of what I am talking about:

http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2014-04-09/france-s-economic-plan-hope-for-miracles

http://www.economist.com/news/europe/21576414-it-weakness-economy-not-political-scandal-most-threatens-french

However, austerity, an economic prescription that ought to address at least a few of these issues seems to have failed to do so.

An argument to explain France’s woes that I had not yet heard, until reading a recent article in the french press, has thought to look at Les Grandes Ecoles as the problem. After all, these elite public universities are a point of considerable national pride as some of the most prestigious institutions in the world.

http://tempsreel.nouvelobs.com/education/20121025.OBS7128/l-ena-facteur-de-declin-francais.html

This article reports on a book written by Mr. Saby, a graduate of the premier school that trains France’s bureaucrats, the ENA (Ecole Nationale D’Administration | National School of Administration). The article suggests that it is the learning environment within ENA that is the principle cause of France’s decline. Principally the problem identified is the suppresion of innovative, creative and open thought.

I have translated the following descriptions of French Education from the article:

“Pour réussir l’épreuve, pas besoin de réfléchir: vous devez connaître le format et le remplir avec les mots-clés adequats”

To pass the exam, no need to think: you need to know the format and complete it with the correct key words

“En cela ils suivent le conseil que leur a donné un tuteur de l’école s’ils veulent des bonnes notes: apprendre par cœur règlements, directives, décisions de la Commission Européenne et avis du Parlement européen.”

And they [the students] follow the advice to get good grades given to them by a tutor of the school: learn by heart the rules, directives, and decision of the European Commission and Parliament

“La crainte de toute initiative, chez les maîtres comme chez les élèves, la négation de toute libre curiosité, le culte du classement ( Bloch dit « succès ») substitué au goût de la connaissance”

The fear of any initiative, among the professors as well as the students, the refusal of any free curiosity, and a culture of classification have replaced the very taste knowledge.

“On a l’impression à lire Saby qu’à l’ENA, les élèves sont infantilisés, effarouchés, lobotomisés.”

Reading Saby’s book, one gets the impression that ENA students are infantilized, taught to be skittish, and lobotomized [metaphorically].

When I read the descriptions of French Higher Education recounted in the article I recognize similar disturbing traits at USC. Often my fellow Trojans have described USC as “a Disneyland of a university.” Others confess that they feel they are being treated the same way they would in high school. Some students I have spoken to point to the ridiculous lengths to which the university goes to suppress activism on the campus as a suppression of independent thinking.

That being said, while living in Paris I spent 4/6 of my middle school and high-school years following the French National Curriculum. While I can attest that the quality of my education was very high (although an intervening factor here may be that the school I attended is ranked #1) I rarely was asked to create presentations, design experiments, or answer open-ended essay questions. A key reason for wanting to do the IB (International Baccalaureate) diploma for my last two years and attend and American university was not wanting to be stuck in a system that I considered to be mind numbing.