I know it doesn't happen in the same country and isn't coming of the same level of hierarchy as Psyko talked about in the OP of the thread, but I think, even though it's a rather different matter, that it also falls under censorship. Except here, it's worse, as it's punishing to speak one of the two official languages of the country.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... -town.htmlThe school is on the boundary of a Flemish-speaking district and the French-speaking Belgian capital, where many of the children live.
One parent told Belgium’s VTM television news: 'It is an outrage to bring children into the argument over the linguistic divisions in this country.
'They speak French at home and at evenings and weekends with their friends.
Headteacher Mrs Vanhercke insisted it was important for all children to speak both Belgium’s languages.
She told VTM news: '
We do not see detention and a Flemish lesson
as a punishment, more a way of encouraging children to learn to speak Flemish.'
Feuding between French and Flemish speakers in Belgium threatened to break the country apart last year when rival political factions were unable to form a government for almost 18 months.
Many Flemish nationalists are in favour of independence from the poorer French-speaking region of Wallonia in the south, which they claim they are supporting financially.
Belgium’s Flemish-speaking former education minister Pascal Smet sparked outrage two years ago by suggesting English should replace French as the second language taught to pupils in Flanders.
French-language newspaper Le Soir wrote at the time: 'This is astonishlgly arrogant. French speakers love their language and take great pride in it. They do not want everyone speaking either only Flemish or English.'
Read more:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... z1maXVpG7t
I have been a pupil myself, and I am sorry to say, but detention IS a punishment. This headteacher is talking nonsense to try to cover their decision.
People accuse nations like France, England but also other southern European states like Spain and Italy to be lazy at learning other languages, but there none of these are anywhere as near as negative regarding talking multiple languages: it's not even about being too lazy to learn others, but it's punished (come on let's cut the hypocrisy there, detention is punishment..) to talk one of the two official languages!
And I thought France educational system was involved into politics ideologies, I didn't know it could be so much more filled with it in Belgium...
What could be said about the italic part...a
would sum up a thousand words.
For Rome!
.
