The French model of the educator state

The emergence in the nineteenth century of a centralized school system cont rolled by the state was one response to the need to stabilize government an d legitimate a state model during a period of repeated revolutions in Franc e. This is why French education has traditionally occupied a specific place in the political sphere: it has been at the heart of a political project o f realizing national integration through the construction of a symbolic pub lic space. There are signs today that this ambitious political construction may be coming apart.