The Netflix series Adolescence will be show in French schools as a teaching aid, the French education minister has announced.
Adolescence tells the story of Jamie, a 13-year-old British teenager who is arrested and accused of stabbing one of his female classmates to death.
Each episode of the drama was filmed in a single shot. Its cast has received widespread praise, with particular plaudits for newcomer Owen Cooper as Jamie, and Stephen Graham as his dad.
In the UK, the series sparked a national conversation about male violence, and the impact of social media and "manosphere" influencers such as Andrew Tate.
In March, British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer Prime Minister said the series would be broadcast in British secondary schools to stimulate debate and try to “prevent young boys from being drawn into a vortex of hatred and misogyny”. The Dutch government soon followed suit, announcing the series would be used as an education tool in Dutch schools.
Now, the French are taking similar action. In an interview with French news channel LCI French Education Minister Elisabeth Borne said the series producers had “opened the rights” to the French Ministry of Education, which will “propose five educational sequences for young people based on this series”.
She said the extracts from Adolescence are “very representative of the violence that can exist among young people”, adding that the series would raise awareness of the problem of “overexposure to screens and the trivialisation of violence on social networks”.
What about Belgium?
In April, the Flemish Minister for Media, Cieltje Van Achter, said the drama would be made available to schools in Flanders.
However, there are no plans to show the series in Walloon schools, according to the office of Education Minister Valérie Glatigny (MR).
When questioned on the subject following the decision to broadcast Adolescence in Flemish schools, an Education Ministry spokesperson said: “While the series could be a good starting point for a discussion in schools about radicalisation and its mechanisms, the idea of prescribing a series and making it compulsory, as suggested by the British Prime Minister, is not feasible in the same way in FWB.
“Indeed, in terms of legislation, the pedagogical freedom of schools and organising authorities is the norm in this area. The theme is left to the 'pedagogical freedom' of educational teams.
“In various courses, however, it is possible to talk about the theme (French, religion, philosophy and citizenship courses, etc.) using a variety of tools such as films, series and readings, in order to grasp the subject, stimulate debate and raise awareness of the phenomenon.”
