It may be late Saturday afternoon at the Grande Ecole, but it’s a hive of activity, with the students busy serving snacks and being friendly. Two young guys in red student association tee shirts play a spirited game of ping pong with a pair of guys in snappy blazers, white shirts and ties. The hopeful applicants straight out of gruelling preparatory schools from around France dress to the nines for their interviews. Michael Jackson’s Billie Jean is blaring from the lounge.
The snacks, the funny graffiti and the ping pong suggest a devil-may-care situation, but in reality there is more to it. After all, we’ve taken part in the French entrance juries this year, conducting interviews, passing judgement as the French faculty representatives do, and we got a glimpse into the pressures on French prep school students. Quite frankly, they’re put through the wringer.
Another Jackson song, Beat It, comes to mind, along with a job we had in the 80’s helping to produce a daily children’s radio show. We had a top ten of songs that the children, aged 6 – 12, requested each week. For months they called in Beat It, Beat It, over and over, driven by the urgency of the beat, and the message in the words:
Beat It, Beat It, Beat It, Beat It
No One Wants To Be Defeated
Showin' How Funky Strong Is Your Fight
It Doesn't Matter Who's Wrong Or Right
Just beat it beat it beat it.
Over the last two days, millions of people worldwide have been focusing on the demise of the manchild. It was a man who broke the color barrier into the White House, but it was a strange enchanted boy who first broke the color barrier on MTV. The boy is dead. Long live the boy. And he sure could dance.
Back in our office, we hit the New York Times front page online, which zips us through to You Tube – the best of Michael dancing.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKBLxh3u0tM
5.7 million views and counting
And the video of Beat It? 25 million and counting.
