"Searching for the Grand Paris" "Metropolization and Economic Growth" "Culture and Education: the Suburbs vs Paris?" -I am young, but I do not feel a part of French society. I cannot imagine myself having a good job. Why? Because I am from La Courneuve. Everything I hear about La Courneuve takes away any motivation I may have. I keep going to college because my parents tell me that people from La Courneuve or Bobigny have a poor reputation and that they have to work harder than others to take down the obstacles and to prove that they can make it, that they can have projects and make them happen. -I did not have any interview for 18 months. I do not know if this is enough to draw a correlation. When your résumé shows you went to school in Villetaneuse, that you are from Bobigny, I think it is an obstacle. -In ninth grade, they would tell us, "You will study sales, accounting, and you will take masonry, you will like it, you're a big guy." Let young people choose what they want to do. -The way we invest in education needs to change. A friend of mine lived in Champigny but went to school in Nogent. In Paris, there are high schools everywhere. To improve things, the conurbation has to do something. Paris and the surrounding departments should work together to increase their investments in education. -I worry about equal opportunities when it comes to school. There is discrimination. What does it mean? With the Grand Paris, young people can go study in Paris, in Henri IV high school for instance. -I think too many high schools are being left off, there are too many inequalities between privileged schools like ours and less privileged schools, social inequalities between students who received different educations. -I think students in the suburbs see Parisian students a certain way, and that they see us in a different way. But I think we are not that different since we all learn the same things. We may discover that we have some things in common. -We should work on respecting equal opportunities and meritocracy. On many websites, the Louise-Michel school has a low ranking and was to be ranked as in a priority education zone. I hate reading this, because we have brilliant students who deserve to succeed. -In the suburbs, Lakanal is the only school with a good reputation. There aren't any other. We should put forward some suburban high schools, to try to get their preparatory classes at the same level as the ones in Paris. -We should be able to divide students between Parisian schools to create more diversity. University is what helped me have a better life because I used to never leave my neighborhood. In university, people from different areas introduced me to new things. They helped me be more fulfilled and better-integrated in society. Today, the problem is that schools are ghettos. -I cannot send my daughter to the nearest school because it is full and that 90% of its pupils are of African descent, so what of our own culture? This is a controversial topic but it has been ignored for too long and we will have to tackle it. I am all for mixing it up, but there should be an actual mix. With 90% of students, it is no longer mixing it up. So my daughter has to integrate the other kids' culture instead of the reverse. And it bothers me because I believe in my country's values. And I want all of us to share them, with no exception. -One thing that needs revamping is the school district map for the parents who cannot afford to send their kids where they want to. -Regarding the school districts, I live in the 5th arrondissement and we have really good high schools. So the social mix is not great. My children's friends all come more or less from the same background. -People complain about young people loitering in suburbs, but not much is offered to them, nobody is helping them. Suburbs are not just filled with unmotivated and untrained people. -It is hard for a young person who went to college to be hired based on their résumé. I think Aubervilliers should work on that with the companies to give hope to the young people. What is important is the person's worth and involvement in the company. -Young people should be able to be a part of the social life. There is not enough dialogue between the administration and young people. They feel abandoned by the authorities and not integrated. -I have older close friends who went to college and who, unfortunately, now have unskilled jobs because they could not find an employer who trusted them. Having a network makes the difference. -I think we should shine the spotlight on people from the town who made it. Who made it from Malakoff? Who are they? What did they do? It could also foster trust in the town. These people made their own success but with some help from the town. -I live by the Canal de l'Ourcq, where infrastructure are being built and companies are setting up. But the people who work there look like they are from Paris, not Pantin. If you are setting up companies or infrastructure which create jobs, it should be to the benefit of young people from Aubervilliers, Saint-Denis, not of Parisian people. We went to college, too. -A lot of young people are saying that, because they live in the suburbs, they are going to be discriminated against, and they are. But people are trying to make things better. If you feel like a victim, you will be victimized. -All the prejudice against young people from housing projects. They think we are doomed to fail. Young people have to prove them wrong and be ambitious. -If we do what we have to, we can do whatever we want. If you are from Seine-Saint-Denis or from Paris, you got the same high school diploma. I know people from Bobigny who went to Sciences Po. It is possible.
