Is there a historical trend for people to complain about the laziness of youth, in French culture?

score:8

Accepted answer

The baisse du niveau is something people have been complaining of since a long time ago. However, the students themselves are not necessarily the ones being blamed but often that's the education system, against the teacher's will.


enter image description here

Revue internationale de l'enseignement, 1881


enter image description here

Francisque Sarcey, L'étudiant de Paris, 1883


enter image description here

Jean-Baptiste Renaud, L'idéologie des sujets du bac, 2002


enter image description here

Comité Laïcité République, 2013

Upvote:3

There's a split related to socio-economical developments:

  • Those who were young people in May 68 see themselves as the generation who fought for the rights (i.e., for social liberalization and social benefits), which younger people take for granted.
  • Their children (born in 50-60s) typically started life un rather poor economical circumstances and lived through the era of economic stability and growth. They see their own economic prosperity as a result of hard work and lament young people for not sharing the basic work values, and benefitting from the wealth achieved via the older generation toil and sweat
  • Those born in the end of the 20th and beginning of the 21st century usually have much better start in terms of being able to get education and higher paid job. Unlike their parents they are not necessarily "loyal" to one employer - changing jobs for more economic benefit or even for the sake of greater personal satisfaction. They may retort to older generation, that it is not trying to preserve the post-war social gains for their children - e.g., the necessary retirement system reform meets the most opposition from those approaching retirement (those in their 50s).

There are also splits according to everyday practices: e.g., 70-80s was a period when breastfeeding of newborns was discouraged - many of those born in that period were raised on artificial milk. Nowadays the breastfeeding is considered beneficial, and this produces clashes between young parents and older medical professionals who may be unable to provide the necessary guidance or even discourage breastfeeding. Sometimes the clash is indirect: between the young people and the young medical professionals who learned from the books by written by the older generation.

Disclaimer: these are just observations of a foreigner living in France. They do not universally apply to all social groups.

Update: A typical poster about different values of the generations, widely shared in social nets: enter image description here

(This specific image was borrowed here.)

Upvote:4

One, relatively, recent trend is the so-called Phénomène Tanguy.

Le phénomène Tanguy est un phénomène social selon lequel les jeunes adultes tardent à se séparer du domicile familial. Cette dénomination vient du film Tanguy, d'Étienne Chatiliez, dont le personnage éponyme s'enferme dans ce type de situation. Une nouvelle expression est ainsi apparue pour désigner la classe d'âge de ces jeunes gens : la génération Tanguy.

Le film est sorti en 2001.

Source:

https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ph%C3%A9nom%C3%A8ne_Tanguy#:~:text=Le%20ph%C3%A9nom%C3%A8ne%20Tanguy%20est%20un,dans%20ce%20type%20de%20situation.

See also

https://www.credigo.fr/actualites/adultes-qui-habitent-chez-papa-maman-les-tanguy-reviennent-en-force.html

https://www.cairn.info/revue-agora-debats-jeunesses-2008-3-page-40.htm

More post

Search Posts

Related post