Imagine starting a fire and then standing by and filming with your mobile phone while a firefighter is engulfed in flames. That is one of the scenes emerging from France's latest wave of unrest. Elsewhere, rioters have doused a teacher in petrol, looted businesses, and set vehicles and schools on fire. The fact that many of the rioters are looting while waving Algerian and Palestinian flags is just a symptom of a much larger, unspoken failure. The ostensible grievance is the condition of French education. The proposed remedy, apparently, is fewer teachers and more ashes.