The term "Risk is this" comes from a story my high school French teacher told me, which is probably apocryphal but has fascinated me for years all the same. When we were complaining about our grades, she explained to us that in France, the grading system is infinitely harsher than in the United States. She told us about the French baccalauréat, also known as le bac, and how it is graded on a scale from 0 to 20 and that 16 is considered an excellent grade and that students only rarely get an 18 or 19 and never a 20.
After high school, French students can opt to take le bac which requires an entire year of study. This test determines where they pursue their higher education. The most famously difficult test is philosophy, where students are asked to take a theme such as “beauty” or “love” and to go through the history of the concept from the Ancient Greek philosophers to the present. This is meant to take the entire four hours allotted for the test.
One year, so the story goes, the test in philosophy consisted of one question, “What is Risk?” While all the other students across France toiled away tracing the development of the concept of risk through the history of philosophy, one daring student simply wrote, “Risk is this…” and turned in his test. The graders were said to have agonized for days about what grade to give this student, some opting for a zero, others for a twenty. Ultimately, they saw the genius of his answer, that his act was in fact demonstrating the concept, and awarded him an unprecedented 20.
Today's lesson: Think outside the box because...
I promise to post more interesting things tomorrow!
Bonne nuit,
Becca
