The Pauline Marie Jaricot house which will open its doors in September in Châtillon-sur-Chalaronne (Ain) is already attracting criticism from detractors for its pedagogy considered outdated and gendered.
The Figaro Lyon
Obligatory long skirt, traditionalist rite and “Christian spirit in all areas of education”. The Pauline Marie Jaricot Education House, a private non-contract college which is due to open at the start of the school year, an hour’s drive from Lyon, is asking questions. Many opponents of the project on social networks point to a pedagogy from another time based on the traditional Pius V rite. A little less in the street, where a gathering in front of the town hall of Châtillon-sur-Chalaronne (Ain) brought together a handful of activists from a secular association at the beginning of the month.
“We were alerted by some residentssays Roland Mirguet at the head of the local section of La Libre Pensée. We distributed an open letter to the elected members of the municipal council.. The mayor received the project leader, Thérèse Madi, in the spring to finalize the rental of premises in the city center of this medieval town famous in the region for its half-timbering. With a two-year lease with option to purchase, in a former empty museum and a rent of 30,000 euros per year: “not negligible for a town of 5,000 inhabitants” whispers the city councilor, Patrick Mathias (LR).
“At first I was surprised by the approach to creating a traditional school from the beginning of the 20th centuryhowever, the mayor acknowledges. In the same vein, a traditionalist church of the Priestly Society of Saint Pius X (FSSPX) already exists in Châtillon. “This is not new”he evacuates while a school for boys of the same obedience has been established for 40 years a few kilometers further south, between the Dombes ponds, in Marlieux. “We come across kids with capes, berets and rolled-up socks.”, continues Pascal Mathias. At Jaricot College, it will be “skirt or dress falling squarely below the knees” et “shoulders covered” for young girls. No pants or cleavage, explicitly states the site of the future establishment.
Long skirts and cooking classes
«These dress codes which exist elsewhere allow a structure in an establishment, such as wearing a uniform, and a liberation of young people from what will be said, allowing them to concentrate on others things”justifies Thérese Madi, founder of the school, to the Figaro. On non-mixed sex, this stay-at-home mother says “convinced by experience that we do not necessarily educate boys and girls in the same way”. “Girls have a head start, it’s not sexist it’s just that people don’t want to see the truth”she asserts.
Young girls to whom the Jaricot house offers “valorize femininity” through activities with gendered connotations. “To prepare young girls for the full development of their talents and the education of their feminine sensitivity, courses in sewing, cooking, floral arranging, economic art and law enrich their training path and enhance the “requirement of their specific vocation”lists the school’s website.
The husband of the director close to Civitas
Trained in welcoming minors, Thérèse Madi has organized and led camps every summer for 10 years. She arrived in Ain four years ago with her husband. The latter notably explained having nine children in a conference given in 2022 at the summer university of the Civitas movement, on the conspiratorial theme of the “Great Reset”. Claiming a fundamentalist approach to Catholicism, Civitas was however dissolved in 2023 due to its “promotion of a hierarchy between French citizens with clearly anti-Semitic and Islamophobic theses”, according to the government.
Thérèse Madi assures that she is the sole initiator of the educational line of her establishment; her husband only intervenes “on legal and real estate issues”his core business. On social networks, he relays his wife’s job offers to find teachers for the two classes that will open at the start of the school year. With a minimum training requirement of a bachelor’s degree, assures Thérèse Madi. No need for a CAPE since the Jaricot house is a private school outside the contract. It is also not linked to the diocese. And on the rectorate side, this type of establishment only has to complete an administrative procedure, registered in mid-June.
Since then, there has been a three-month opposition period during which the prefecture, town hall or public prosecutor’s office can object to the opening of the establishment, which seems very unlikely. A control is planned from the first year of exercise by the rectorate. “We are going to provide all the knowledge related to the core of the common core. And above all open training in the arts”assures Thérese Madi, emphasizing the local existence of a “demand for alternative pedagogy”. Pedagogy that will remain afterwards “under the caudine forks of the rectorate”assures the mayor of Châtillon. In the Lyon academy, unannounced checks are carried out on the 120 establishments outside the contract at intervals of two to three years, indicates the entourage of the rector. For the moment according to Progressaround ten registrations have been recorded for the next school year.
