Istota wprowadzenia Karty Laickości Szkoły Francuskiej

Abstract

The French Revolution sought to discover the way to view freedom. At the end of the Revolution, they proclaimed the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen. In French society, these fruits of the Revolution were considered something sacred. Paradoxically, in a country that did so much to cleanse public life of religious factors, the same state has begun to create a religion of the state. All of the process after the Revolution, in particular, the Law of 1905 regarding the separation between the state and the church, has fortified the idea of secularism in French society. This process of the state was introduced in the schools because they wished to construct a society which was entirely secular which believed in the values of the Republic. They therefore made divisions between the public schools and the private ones. The public schools had a secular and a national character. The substantial difference between the schools was that in the public schools, the teaching of religion as a separate subject was expelled and the religious issues in the teaching curriculum was reduced to the minimum. It appeared only as a background in the historical issues. Commenting on the Charter of Secularism, I seek to respond to the question – what happened which caused them to introduce this Charter of Secularism in the schools? We find the first response in the actions of the young people who want to be respected along with having their religious systems respected. Such problems arose when the French introduced the prohibition of religious symbols. However, the prohibitions did not resolve the problem. They therefore invented and introduced the Charter of Secularism of the French School. This is a kind of new way of presenting the idea of secularism to the students. The Charter was implemented as a way of reinforcing the prohibitions which had been previously introduced. It repeats the ideas which have been presented in the schools since the end of the French Revolution. Looking at the Charter, we have the impression that it is simply a repetition of the same phrases – that it is pure theory that has nothing in common with the reality. However, the French Ministry of Education always creates new initiatives which promote the presence of secularism in the schools. Unfortunately however, they do not look at the problems of the young people. They don’t want to understand their identities and especially, their religious identities.