Learning to give: Managing privilege in a French elite public primary school

Abstract This article highlights the role of a Parisian primary public school serving elite demographics in shaping children’s class identities by teaching privilege management. Based on a year of ethnographic observations in 4th and 5th grade classrooms, this study examines the daily practices of a privileged school and its philanthropy program, Giving is Good. Drawing on critical scholarship on the education of elites, exposure and intervention are the two mechanisms through which the class transforms children’s immediate social environment into a resource for philanthropic engagement. The results indicate that privilege management generates a disposition to talk about and navigate inequality with ease while maintaining face and privilege. Results also show a profound gendered discrepancy in how children “learn to give.” In light of recent evolutions in citizenship education, the article discusses the implications of teaching philanthropy in public schools for political culture and how privileged children learn to think about other children who do not belong to the same social class.