A growing movement has mobilized France’s youth against diminished school conditions and accumulating problems—and provided, for its detractors, a pretext for blaming the country’s ills on febrile ado...

Educational specimen box, mahogany, for the education of children, assembled in England, ca. 1850.

The demonstrations erupted in Paris-region schools last week and have snowballed, with police making hundreds of arrests in clashes with the young protesters.

"Austerity doesn’t work. Instead, it creates a death spiral, where reduction in services leads to reductions in revenue, which lead to reductions in services, which leads to reduction in revenue, whic...