Ten years after the attacks of January 2015, the first of a tragic period for France, these events can be addressed in class as part of moral and civic education. But despite the emotion aroused at the time, they appear distant to a generation of students who were barely born when they occurred.
On January 7, 2015, terrorism struck France brutally. Twelve people, including eight members of the Charlie Hebdo editorial team, were coldly murdered by the Kouachi brothers in the name of the terrorist group al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP). At the same time, their accomplice Amedy Coulibaly assassinated a municipal police officer in Montrouge before taking customers of the Hyper Cacher store in Paris hostage. Four people will be murdered.
“On January 7, 2015, I was in training,” remembers Fabien Salesse, a middle school history and geography teacher in Lyon. “Our phones were just ringing. The next day, we had to talk about this attack. It was so atrocious. Our values were being attacked, the children but also the parents had questions.” “Contextualization work” then began for teachers, he continues. “There were 2-3 things to restore.”
Important contextualization work
Ten years later, how can we talk about these attacks to the younger generations, at school? For Fabien Salesse, the work of contextualization is the same. “We must not give up raw facts which would not make sense to the students,” says the professor, also general secretary of the Association of History and Geography Teachers.
The attacks of January 2015 can be addressed within the framework of moral and civic education, when the themes of the rule of law, freedom of expression or press rights are raised.
“We start with the main principles then we zoom in on France. We explain how the law protects these principles. These questions are sometimes contested. Then we arrive at Charlie Hebdo and Samuel Paty, two events which require a lot of contextualization work. “
For several years, the editorial staff of Charlie Hebdo, with its atheist and anticlerical line, had been the subject of threats. Even more so after 2006, the year when the newspaper published twelve caricatures of Mohammed, already published in the Danish press. In 2013, the cartoonist and editorial director of Charlie Hebdo, Charb, was directly designated by AQAP as a personality “wanted alive or dead for crimes against Islam” after the publication of a comic strip on the life of Mohammed. Stéphane Charbonnier, his real name, is one of the victims of the Kouachi brothers.
“When I contextualize, I don't go through the attacks hour by hour. But I focus on the context. I emphasize the people who lost their lives, but going into the morbid would bring nothing to the analysis “, continues Fabien Salesse.
For Amélie Hart, high school teacher in Dijon and member of SNES-FSU, the objective is not to “water down the facts”. “It very often happens that students tell us 'it's horrible'. It's important to stick to the facts. The recurring question is 'why'”, explains the teacher. For her, the priority is rather to help her students “understand”. “The theme of terrorism interests them because it appears to be a gratuitous act of violence,” she believes.
The need to answer students' questions
For the ten years since the January 2015 attacks, the Ministry of National Education has not sent any official directives to teachers. “I think it is important to explain to students what freedom of expression and freedom of the press mean in our country,” declared this weekend on BFMTV Élisabeth Borne, the Minister of National Education . “Yes we can show them the caricatures, it is not a very simple subject for the students, it is not the subject of five minutes but of work throughout the year and which will be shared on Monday” , she added.
For Fabien Salesse, it’s impossible to miss it. “There is no question of leaving this subject aside. It also shows students that the principles and values of the Republic are not shared by certain groups.”
For his colleague, a history and geography professor in Dijon, nothing is certain. “I don’t plan to talk about it this week,” explains Amélie Hart, head of the history-geography group at SNES-FSU national. “But we are still in ambiguity. If there are questions from students about the attacks of January 2015, I will answer them. I reviewed my sheets to be able to answer them.”
The link with Samuel Paty
Whether within the framework of the program or not, history and geography teachers are “used to reacting to current events”. However, the teacher with a long career does not make this significant event for society an obligation of her teaching.
“The question of freedom of expression can be addressed through these attacks but with many other events as well, with questions closer to the interests of our students,” she continues, referring to “the question of manipulation of opinions on social networks” or “the question of deepfake, video manipulation”.
In October 2020, the attacks of January 2015 tragically returned to the news with the assassination of Samuel Paty, this history-geography professor from Yvelines who had shown caricatures of Mohammed during one of his classes.
“Colleagues are thinking about it,” acknowledges the SNES-FSU representative. “We are not going to force ourselves to show a particular caricature because it has left its mark on society. In front of us, we have students. The press cartoon is used according to the age of the students, for educational purposes. It’s not about showing for the sake of showing.”
Fabien Salesse agrees. It is not a question of “showing” the caricatures as an act of protest but of “using” them for educational purposes. “Some students are aware at home, others are not at all aware and others find that it is not respectful. It is a question of decentering the gaze. This look is shocked, it is normal. C “It is up to the teacher to support them. I remind you that caricatures affect all religions and that the goal is never to hurt believers. There is a methodological work,” he says.
Students who did not experience the attacks
Teachers also find themselves confronted with the generational question. In January 2015, today's middle school students were between 2 and 5 years old, current high school students between 6 and 8 years old. In fact, they approach the attacks in 2025 almost as a historical fact.
“The more we advance in time, the more important the contextualization work is,” recognizes Fabien Salesse. When the teacher talks about it to his middle school students, their reaction is always the same. “It's a surprise, they tell me 'you can't kill for drawings.' There are always things that clash.”
But the more time goes on, the less the theme is addressed by certain teachers. “I talked about it a lot immediately because it was close,” explains Amélie Hart. “The subject came naturally, as did the students' questions. The more the years go by, the less we talk about it, because unfortunately there are other news. The mistake would be to say that what touches us emotionally must affect our students.” The professor remembers the assassination of Samuel Paty, which occurred the day before a two-week school vacation.
“Many of us noticed that at the start of the school year, students did not know what we were talking about. It all depends on what information their parents are looking at, perhaps they are protecting them from certain information. Some students did not have any not heard of it even though it had happened two weeks earlier, so imagine ten years later…”
