Food

Paris, June 2016

The classroom was empty, no tables or chairs left. They had been transported in a gym, to be used there for baccalaureate candidates. But in a corner near the entrance, a trace of exam preparation has been left: a white sheet recalling dietary guidelines. If it were not necessary to write that computers and phones were banned because of their near-infinite memory and the means of communication with the outside world they contained, the ecology of the school exam has to be better defined.
Like any public instruction, this sheet is intended for controllers as well as monitored pupils, exactly listing what is allowed and what is forbidden, thus leaving no room, in the mind of its designers, for negociation. The number of candy and water volume are accurate, and any excess leads to irreversible punishment, although not compatible with public policies of food waste limiting and the nutritional election of fruits and vegetables.
If the surveillance regime tolerates that bodies have other needs than reading, writing and calculating, they shall not impede the panoptic vision of teachers or disturb others’ attention with various plastic packaging noises or gas going out of cans. Mens sana in corpore sano.