French Literature Reviews - 2026

V. Bouzou, Ces profs qu'on assassine
History, Politics and Society

Véronique BOUZOU, Ces profs qu'on assassine, Paris, Éditions Jean-Claude Gawsewitch, 2009.

Resignations, imprisonment, mental breakdown, suicide. According to teacher Véronique Bouzou, author of a newly released and hard-hitting book entitled Ces profs qu'on assassine ("Teachers We Murder"), this is the grim daily reality for many educators in France.

“It is highly unlikely that a teacher would ever take their class hostage,” Véronique Bouzou explained last March on RTL when interviewed about the film Skirt Day (La Journée de la jupe). “When teachers snap, they turn the weapon against themselves.”
A French teacher in Mantes-la-Jolie and the author of the 2005 memoir Confessions d'une jeune prof, Bouzou tackles this difficult subject in her latest book. The idea came to her following a tragic news story in 2008: a teacher accused of striking a student committed suicide the day after being taken into police custody.

Is Bouzou's investigation overly alarmist? Not if we consider a unique feature of the French National Education system: it is the only government administration, alongside the Ministry of Defense, to have its own psychiatric rehabilitation center—La Verrière—reserved for struggling teachers weakened by depression or suffering from sometimes severe neuroses. Ces profs qu'on assassine is the result of rigorous, uncompromising on-the-ground research conducted among teachers, their families, and specialized physicians, shedding light on the obstacle-strewn path of the teaching profession: resignation, imprisonment, madness, or suicide...

The psychological distress of teachers remains a taboo subject to this day. Véronique Bouzou, herself a teacher, has had the courage to address this painful issue.

Watch Véronique Bouzou's interview on Télématin:

The institutional framework of French public education has long been a subject of sociological and political analysis within the humanities. Scholars and educators frequently examine how large-scale administrative structures interact with the mental health and daily working conditions of civil servants. Within this broader context, public discussions often turn to the specific pressures placed on secondary school educators by institutional demands, student relations, and administrative oversight. The psychological toll on teaching staff touches upon wider questions concerning labor conditions within centralized state bureaucracies and the societal expectations placed on the educational corps in contemporary Western societies.

Readers interested in contemporary social issues and the sociology of education may find this volume relevant. Véronique Bouzou is a French teacher and the author of Ces profs qu'on assassine, a book addressing difficulties faced by educators, focusing on phenomena such as professional burnout, psychological breakdown, and the situation of teachers. The work discusses the realities of modern schooling in France and touches upon issues of professional distress.

http://societe.fluctuat.net/blog/37066-le-malaise-des-profs.html