FRBV25 LC Respect Liberty Writing poems about resistance and freedom

One of our RespectOl actions was carried out by students enrolled in the project and all their classmates in their 3rd year of college. This activity was part of a sequence in the annual curriculum: Poetry at the time of the Resistance, as part of a broader cross-disciplinary course called “Fight and Commit”, common to all students at this age group.

Students first studied the texts of French authors of literary heritage, written during the Second World War: «Ce coeur qui haïssait la guerre» by Robert DESNOS (1943), Marianne Cohn «Je trahirai demain» (1943), Paul Eluard's poem  illustrated by the painter Fernand Léger “Liberté (1942),  printed in the form of a tract and parachuted at the time over the maquis to support the French resistance; and finally Louis Aragon “Strophes pour se rappeler” commemorating the action of the resistance group of Missak Manouchian, shot at Mount Valerian by the Nazis. Through work on style, writing processes, themes of poems and the clandestine publication conditions of some of these writings, students were able to reflect on the notion of poetry and civic engagement: how can words be a weapon? How can someone risk their life to defend values, and in the first place that of freedom as a foundation for the construction of Europe. At the end of the sequence, they had to write a personal text highlighting all the processes studied and defending a value or denouncing a situation in the contemporary world that outraged them. The text had to be typed on a computer and the layout had to emphasize the message of the poem in an original, creative and impactful way. The poems, or slams produced were printed in poster format and plasticized, then exhibited in the school.

The students were very creative and showed a real interest in the necessary commemoration of past tragedies, while analyzing the issues facing society today. Raising awareness among their fellow students through their texts was an obvious choice. The students improved their critical mind and developed their spirit of analysis and synthesis. They also  practised their writing and speaking skills, while progressing in the awareness of fundamental values.  They enjoyed that activity as it was both educative and entertaining