Obsessed with cold reason, nimble wit and ferocious examinations, French education is a series of sieves that let pass an ever smaller number of ever brighter students. The final screening is France's finest filter: the apex academies called the grandes écoles.
Their graduates virtually run France. In fields from art to war, these schools provide the professional training that certifies a Frenchman for the upper ranks of science, industry and the grand corps of key officials who have quietly governed France amid the constant crash of cabinets. Without such training, it is...
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