for Jean Viard, “the question of school time arises, in relation to the time of a four-day work society”

This week there will be a big May 8 bridge for all students in France from Wednesday to Sunday. Some employees were able to afford the same leave and rest during the week of May 1st. The French aspire to leave the big cities this spring when good weather is waiting in certain regions.

The major bridges in May, this week from Wednesday to Sunday, and next week from May 8 to 12, are important departure periods for workers who wish to take advantage of these spring bridges by leaving large cities. Decryption with sociologist Jean Viard.

franceinfo: It’s really a question of society, Jean Viard, these big bridges in the month of May, and is it a great joy for many French people?

Jean Viard: Yes, there is a massive phenomenon of departures. It’s the time when the weather starts to get nice, so today, I say that but it’s not nice everywhere. So there is a massive desire to leave big cities. There are three holidays in France: from August 1 to 15, the Christmas holidays since 1981 – we put the fifth week of paid leave between Christmas and New Year’s Day – and then there are these spring bridges. This year is a good year because there are years when there are not many bridges, because the public holidays fall on Sunday.

So there is this deep desire of people. But let’s not forget that the first activity on this bridge is going to be gardening. The 67% of people who have a garden have taken out their mower, their pruning shears, their hoe, and they are planting flowers or tomatoes. And then there are those who are going to leave town. It’s nature’s celebration, I would say it like that. And as many people as possible want to share this celebration of nature. Some may go for a walk in a park, in a public garden or spend a day outside the city. But it is a very, very strong moment in the life of the company.

But some students are just returning from spring break. Does it disrupt school life a little all the same?

I think there is a real debate about the organization of time. We must not hide it. We built the school holidays taking into account road safety problems, which is normal, and snow problems, which is also normal. But the world has changed. There are children, they will return on Monday morning, after 15 days of vacation and on Tuesday evening, they are on vacation for another five days. Other children will not have a bridge. It’s taken during the school holidays. Excuse me, it’s a mess, I think which disorganizes not only the school and the children, but also production, because parents also take their days off when they have their children at home.

We have the impression that now we are stopping working intensely from the beginning of May. I’m being a little provocative in saying this, but I think we need to rethink this. On the one hand, we have to move towards a week where everyone works four days a week – I’m talking about schools – because on Fridays, we know very well that many people leave the cities. We see this very clearly in Paris, but not only in Paris. So the question of school time, in relation to the time of a four-day work society, arises.

In the United States, there are many schools that are open Monday through Thursday, and on Friday the school is not closed, but for most children it is closed. It is open for catch-ups, for parent meetings, and especially for continuing training for teachers, and this is so that they are not absent on the days when the children are there. It’s a model, you have to think about it.

There is what the Italians do. Indeed, you have the right to take your children on vacation for a week, whenever you want. I think it’s completely in tune with the times in our societies, particularly for the 9% of French people who go skiing. That they go skiing when there is snow, and that we do not force all French people to stay at home, when there are only 9% who go skiing. On this point, we need to think a lot more about the notion of “families”. To think that families are broken up in space. 50% of people do not live in their birth department, which means that their brothers, sisters and cousins ​​are not nearby.

However, one of the major challenges of school holidays is families: meetings with grandparents, aunts, etc. I think we need to return to the idea that the family is the heart of the social bond, and that school time must be structured by the family, and that we perhaps need to review the time of the week, including for questions of density of work, of production. Because school time is also partly work time. However, work is a major issue in the ecological battle to produce wealth.

The May holidays are perhaps just the opportunity to relax with the family?

But that’s why May Bridge is great because everyone has it at the same time. And that’s also why there are so many people moving around, because it is true in all regions and therefore it works very well. But for me when I was at school, it’s not to say we have to go back to the old days, Easter for example, it was the same time for everyone. Moreover, at the time of the Easter holidays, we did not have the idea that the Easter holidays did not correspond to the Easter holidays. We have to give meaning to things and I think that these holidays, indeed, this May bridge works very well, because we all have it at the same time.