Creation in a country characterised by logic : ensci's founding dream

When one reads the manifesto which accompanied the creation of the ENSCI (École nationale supérieure de création industrielle) school in 1982, one realises that the task proved to be arduous, and the foundation of a school for industrial creation, a challenge. According to the founder of the school, Jean-Louis Monzat de Saint-Julien, our educational system is Cartesian, analytical, disciplinary, and based on hierarchy; in other words, it is diametrically opposite to the embodiment of creation. He added that the little regard given to design and meagre enthusiasm in France for entrepreneurship are also a form of illness which affects the core of French mentality and its institutions. What sort of school could possibily be created in such conditions, in the knowledge that, additionally, teaching is opposed to creation ? The ENSCI school was founded based on these thoughts and from resolute choices such as non-educational selection criteria, using training as a tool, implementing educational contracts, and so on. How has this founding vision adapted itself to the tests of the real world and the test of time ?