SERVICIOS PÚBLICOS SOCIALES

For the criterion of mix in this question, two themes arise that are in opposition, each of which is comprised of two minor themes. For some parents, mix in schools is in a sense

mandatory. The school should reflect the mix of the nation or town. To the probe of why she ranked mix as she did, this parent replies that mix should be the same as it is in the town.

Mme. Landry, with two children at Arche, an Appraiser

Why? Because when we leave the collège, when we are in the street, when, when [where] we dwell, social mix exists, especially in our city. In addition, I really think it is, that it's important to, it's important to live together. It's better that I think for children, too. It opens them to something else, that is to say, to be able say to themselves that they have a home, but there are other children who do not have one, who do not live the same way …

For other parents, however, the reason mix should exist in schools is that it is good for children. It builds social connections among people and provides opportunities and experiences to learn from others. It is useful to have, rather than obligation to impose on the school.

Mme. Halphen, with two children at Arche, an Assenter

You must learn to live with others in this collège. There is a mix that is very important, there are all nationalities. One can meet Africans, Asians,

Maghrebians, French, Russians, immigrants who arrive here. They are welcomed. Refugees, too. It's talking about real life, real life, and that's done. And it allows one to have an opening to others in society, also to societies that are different.

For other parents, mix is neither mandatory nor good. These parents do not necessarily oppose mix but are more reserved about it. Mix is fine if it does not bring problems to schools, such as failing to integrate, breeding social and religious strife, and impeding academic progress.

Mme. Boudet, an airline executive with one child at Legacy, an Adherent

RESPONDENT: So, I'm going to be, uh, politically incorrect. The mix is possible if all the children really work. If children who do not work in this way who can afford to work that way…we have a quality of education that is inferior. It's my point of view. So, it will always be the same principle in a privileged suburb, here. We know that the level will be supported. So, uh, mix, um, I'm very, very bothered to answer (laughs) because, for me, I was schooled in Paris, in the 18th [a northern district of Paris proper], and we had really a good experience, a very great social mix with there, the bourgeois, the workers, and all, and it was happening very, very, very well. And when I look now, it is going well. So, I know that it can happen, and it's okay, but it's not the case, it's not of the left [politically]. I'm trying very, very hard to answer. (Laughs).

INTERVIEWER: Okay.

RESPONDENT: You have my answer [using the familiar form of you, tu, as if speaking with a child].

As the preceding excerpts indicate, parents struggle with the issue of mix, as Raveaud and van Zanten (2006) contend in a study of middle schools in France and Britain. Among some parents, mix is considered a social and individual good when I conducted these interviews in 2016 and 2017, unlike in Raveaud and van Zanten’s earlier study, in which they do not. For some of these parents, mix is necessary so that schools reflect the society at large, a collective response, and it provides connections, experiences, and knowledge, an individualized response. Nevertheless, tension exists for parents over the desirability and workability of mix and for the academic outcomes for their children. These parents believe too much mix hinders education because it slows down teaching and their children do not get the breadth and depth of lessons they desire. Of course, as everywhere, all parents care about the educational progress of their children, but the question of equality, one of the paramount French social values, arises among these parents when their children get less than students in homogeneous schools. Finally, the parents do not characterize one type of mix as more detrimental than another type. Even

“politically incorrect” Mme. Boudet, who says that the social class mix in her childhood was not a problem, demurs from saying that the cultural and ethnic mix time is now somehow worse. Its relationship to race and school choice is not readily apparent in parental accounts, moreover.

Two major themes thus emerge from parental accounts. The first theme is “Mix necessary and good” and the other is “Mix brings problems.” The first major theme includes a minor theme of “Must have mix” as with accounts such as that Mme. Landry above, and a minor theme of “Good to have mix,” as in the account of Mme. Halphen, because it builds social ties. The other major theme, “Mix brings problems,” includes accounts such as that of the politically incorrect Mme. Boudet, who claims mix affects the quality of schooling. Importantly, these parents do not believe mix should be considered bad itself, but they are just wary of its effects.

More parental accounts fall into the first major theme than into the second major theme, (see Table 5.2). Parents go one way or the other in their accounts. Of the 29 parents interviewed, only four cite criteria that fall under both themes. School mix is an issue in which polar

differences exist among parents. In the first major theme, moreover, the two minor themes are themselves nearly discrete. For some parents, the emphasis is on the collective, “Must have mix,” and for the other parents, the emphasis is on the individualized, “Good to have mix.” Of the 20 parents with responses in this theme, only three cite criteria in both minor themes.