Pork or nothing: how school dinners are dividing France

[Bad Thoughts]

187. What does this have to do with me?

I am presenting the reality of French political culture, in which certain right wing (and George W. Bush inspired ) politicians have picked up on the calls of pur porc by the National Front of France in an effort to reclaim what they say in a nation rooted in Christian (not Enlightenment) civilization.

Since the 1880s, the public schools of France were designed to be a beacon of integration and secularization by drawing them away from religious institutions. It was more important to make them one nation that sat together in the same class, saluted the same flag, and received the same education without the interference of the clergy. At the root of education policy was the promotion of a common sense of Frenchness that would overwhelm and, perhaps, replace any other identities and affiliations the individual might have. The regulations concerning school meals, as legislated in the 1970s and updated in the 1990s, followed in the same spirit. It provided to students a rich and varied meal that the government felt that every Frenchman deserved, even children: two hours, five full courses, with choices, that were better than the lunches they could get at home and at a cheaper price. It was designed to inspire students to feel an essential part of French culture in commune with one another, and at the same time, convince their parents to let them take their lunches at school (not bring them home for any reason, let alone religious reasons). The fact that there would be choices was important because on the one hand, it was considered part of the experience of French cuisine, and on the other, to undermine the desire of religious parents to remove their children. And the government only went part of the way: it offered alternatives to pork; it did not offer kosher or hallal meals.

Those are the facts. I am sorry if France does not live up to your expectations of a secular state.