France’s systemic problems with education aren’t new, of course. Last weekend, Brianna Di Monda wrote about her experiences teaching English in Nîmes, a former coal mining town in the south of France, during the gilets jaunes protests of 2018. There, she learned, the French ideal of equality is little more than a comforting story people tell themselves.

Students all over the world can be a powerful catalyst for change—and the right knows it. Student journalist Ethan Sun reports this week on the David Network, a conservative career organization targeting students at elite universities, which attempts to create the ruling class’s next generation. But all is not lost: At Yale University, another student Zachary Clifton writes, students have revived a statue their forbears used to protest the Vietnam War as they agitate against the university’s negotiations with the Trump administration. The kids are alright!

-Tisya Mavuram

Engagement Editor, The Nation