When adolescents protest that the government is failing to uphold their right to an education, and the government’s response is to send in riot police, the government has lost the plot.(当青少年抗议政府未能保障其受教育权，而政府的回应竟是派出防暴警察，这个政府就已经彻底迷失了方向。) People outside France may have spent the past week watching the student protests in Paris and other cities, and thought, “Well, France has a long tradition of insurrection(起义、暴动)” or, “That’s just the French being French.”
当青少年抗议政府未能保障他们的受教育权，而政府的回应竟是派出防暴警察，那这个政府已经彻底迷失了方向。法国以外的人过去一周或许一直在关注巴黎等城市的学生抗议，心里想的是：“法国嘛，历来就有造反传统”，或者“法国人就是这样”。
But the situation that has provoked(引发、激起) the high-school walkouts(罢课、退场抗议) and teenage anger is most likely not one they would immediately associate with(把……与……联系起来) the France of their imaginations. In place of its lost plot, the French government has a collection of anecdotes(轶事、零散事例) and statistics that it should be ashamed of: 27th place in the most recent OECD education rankings(经合组织教育排名（PISA）), schools with ceilings collapsing and rats in classrooms and, in a school in Bagnolet, no drinkable water; an increase in the average number of students per class from 27 in 2010 to over 30 today; half of primary and high schools missing teachers at the start of the school year – many of them with no substitutes(代课教师、替补) or replacements.
但引发高中罢课和青少年愤怒的现状，很可能与他们想象中的法国毫无关联。法国政府失去方向之后，剩下的是一堆它本该感到羞耻的轶事和数据：在最近一次经合组织教育排名中位列第27；校舍天花板坍塌、教室里有老鼠，巴尼奥莱的一所学校甚至没有可饮用水；班级平均人数从2010年的27人增至如今的30多人；半数中小学在开学时缺教师——其中许多学校没有代课教师或替补。
Julie, a 34-year-old teacher who joined the demonstrations(示威游行), told me that staff shortages(师资短缺) were the fault of “low salaries and poor treatment.” She has to commute for an hour and 45 minutes each way between Paris and the school on the city’s outskirts where she accepted a post last year after switching careers.(她每天要在巴黎和市郊那所学校之间通勤，单程就要1小时45分钟——去年她转行后接受了那里的职位。) All for €2100 (£1,780) a month, plus some overtime pay. Teachers’ salaries in France are only 56% of what they are in Germany – even as over €200bn in public subsidies(补贴、补助金) finds its way annually to businesses.
34岁的教师朱莉参加了示威，她告诉我，师资短缺的根源在于“工资低、待遇差”。她每天要在巴黎和市郊那所学校之间通勤，单程就要1小时45分钟——去年她转行后接受了那里的职位。这一切换来的月薪只有2100欧元（约1780英镑），外加一点加班费。法国教师的工资仅为德国的56%——而与此同时，每年有超过2000亿欧元的公共补贴流向企业。