Alexandre
(the first name has been changed)
is one of those known as “good students”.
Correct grades, no repetitions, no hitches with his teachers.
In a few days, this fifteen-year-old teenager will pass the college diploma.
A relief for his mother, Sabrina
(name has been changed)
, after weeks of anguish.
Panic gripped her in mid-March.
Sabrina, 49, lives in a cute apartment in central Paris with her only son.
The duo went through the health crisis between these walls covered with works of art and pieces brought in from all over the world.
Doubts about the future combined with the difficulties of homeschooling have "weakened" Alexandre.
“Like all teenagers,” Sabrina wants to believe.
The schoolboy took refuge behind his screens;
he spends hours strumming on TikTok or Twitter.
In the spring, his questions on the Covid-19 are swept away by a new speech.
“He began to tell me that we were not allowed to impose so many hours of lessons on him a day, that it was contrary to his freedom of choice.
"
“I won't go to college anymore.
There is someone who explains all this well on the Internet "
Sabrina suffocates: "Little by little, his words have become more pronounced". The Easter holidays are ringing. Alexander refuses to do his homework. Sabrina surprises him, in the middle of the night, drowned in the jungle of social networks. “I hear that the system is poorly made, that we do not learn how to become an entrepreneur. »Entrepreneur? “I am surprised at these words. »At the start of the school year, Alexandre cloistered himself and refused to go back to class.
The boy's family is worried.
They all try to reason with him.
His mother tries to take the wifi away from him.
Nothing helps: for three weeks, the teenager will not go to college.
One evening, during yet another mother-son argument, Alexandre lets go.
"He said to me:
You will not make me change my mind, I will not go any more.
There is someone who explains all this well on the Internet.
Alexander refuses to give a name, so Sabrina does her little investigation.
“I knew he loved TikTok.
I typed in the keywords “schooling”, “school dropout” and I came across a video of a guy typing on school.
I was stuck.
"
Read alsoCovid-19 and school: parents confused and worried "for the future" of their children
On the images of a few seconds, the one who calls himself coach Dydy addresses his 264,000 subscribers.
In sports clothes, in a voice that is sometimes high pitched, he asserts: “Dropping out of school is a pure aberration.
I remind you that France is among the last countries in Europe in terms of school results with one of the heaviest programs that exist.
"
This tennis teacher pounded school, his videos explode
Sabrina scans the account. Dylan, as he describes himself, is in his early thirties. He is a tennis coach in a seaside resort south of Valencia, Spain. His videos have the blue of the Mediterranean and the cliffs of the Costa Blanca as a backdrop, or the interior of his car. Words are often raw. “I quit school at 15 because it broke my balls. "By phone, Dylan M., who does not disclose his last name, assumes his course:" I did not feel at all well in the school system. I couldn't even go to school anymore, to stand authority. "
The tennis teacher, who obtained his state diploma in France at the age of 18, started a tennis academy in 2016 in Spain. There, he hosts and coaches a 10-year-old boy whose multimillionaire father would like him to become a great player. To thank him, the wealthy boss gives him shares in his Dubai-based company. Dylan finally closes his academy just before the arrival of the Covid-19 and is already dreaming of new projects. It launches on TikTok in December. "By the greatest of luck," he slips. I made dance videos with my niece. And then, I do not know what caught me, I made one on the Covid which collected 2 million views. I hated social networks before but I got caught up in the game. ”He then broaches the subject of the French school system.
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Dylan explains that "a lot of young people" came to ask him questions about his career.
“They recognized themselves in what I was saying.
There are a lot of children who fail at school.
His subscriber count exploded.
He posts films at a frantic pace in which he discusses the difficulties of high school students with the crisis, reforms of the Ministry of Education ... "Blanqué or Blanquère, I do not know how to pronounce", he said, referring to the minister Jean-Michel Blanquer.
On TikTok, a third of users are under 18.
Like Alexander.
“How can a stranger speak to our children and make them quit school?
This is very serious.
He's like a guru, ”breathes his mother, Sabrina.
Over the weeks, Dylan and his incisive tone landed on Instagram and then on YouTube.
Minors are pouring out in the comments.
"When you say
(sic)
the school cannot train us to be an entrepreneur are you also talking about
(sic)
colleges and high schools?
»Asks a high school student.
“Of course especially you.
Entrepreneurship will never be explained to you
(sic)
.
For example, you will not learn how to earn money (…).
The school wants employees, ”replies Dylan.
A complaint filed
For a while, he tested with his “community” the idea of launching training courses for young people, even very young people, dreaming of becoming entrepreneurs. The curious ask: "How much will it cost?" "," Will it be free? Sabrina's blood swirls around. “It was even worse. There is money behind it. My son, I managed to wake him up, but he must stop harming others. The shopkeeper writes a report on the Pharos platform, created by the government to report illegal content online. She also writes to Miviludes, the interministerial mission for vigilance and the fight against sectarian aberrations. And fulminates in a letter addressed to Brigitte Macron.
The next day, a police officer called her back and encouraged her to file a complaint.
What she does.
La Miviludes contacted her a few days later.
The institution "took this report very seriously", we are confirmed.
It has "already approached its institutional partners".
"I don't encourage kids to quit school"
Dylan admits having received messages from unhappy parents. He defends himself: “My message has been interpreted in different ways: some say that I encourage young people in difficulty, others that I explain to them not to go to school. On TikTok, I can't expand on the topics, the videos are very short. But I also do live. And those who want to push the debate, I help them in private. He hammers: "I don't encourage kids to quit school. If you are going to college, you have a goal. But if not, I assume that it is better to stop. I also get a lot of messages from parents thanking me. As for the complaint, it seems to fall from the cupboard, speaks of "aberration" and ends up threatening to sue Le Parisien.
In recent months, videos offering training to become an entrepreneur for hundreds of euros have proliferated on Snapchat and YouTube. Hanaine Ben Hadj, FCPE representative in Villepinte, in Seine-Saint-Denis, confides in following a final year student, crossed in the spring. She refused to take her baccalaureate. “She was approached by a man on Snapchat who promised to take her in hand and help her get rich. He was brainwashed quite a bit. "On the question of social networks," parents are distraught, "worries Sophie Venetitay, the general secretary of Snes, the union of secondary teachers. She insists: “In reality, it is very difficult, if not impossible, to really know what children are doing on smartphones, especially those of friends. "
Dylan assures that he has nothing in common with these “clowns”. “I am authentic. I'm not talking about money, ”he says. A few weeks ago, he launched “Self-starter”, a company through which he distills advice on lifestyle choices. Next winter, he plans to sell a "newspaper" to "set his goals, do a self-analysis of oneself." He brushes aside criticism. “Those who do not like my speech, let them unsubscribe. "" I assume that if I help one person and it impacts a hundred others negatively, it is still a huge benefit. Certainly not enough to convince Sabrina.