Dan Negru criticizes first-day school assembly as a “military punishment”

Dan Negru has criticized Romania’s first-day school assembly, calling a tradition that has survived for generations “a military punishment.”

Writing on Facebook on Sept. 7, the television presenter said he was attending the assembly with his children and saw little change from the ceremony he knew as a student. Teachers once told his generation to get used to the formation because they would encounter it in the army, he said. Forty years later, he argued, children were still standing in the same place.

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The school assembly is a military punishment. My generation was disciplined in the formation. Now my children are in the same place.

Negru also objected to the presence of politicians, mayors and local officials who deliver speeches to students during the ceremonies. He said the children listen obediently, turning the event into a lesson in compliance rather than inspiration.

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The first lesson on the first day of school is not about curiosity, questions or freedom of thought. It is about how to listen, stay silent and applaud.

“The first lesson on the first day of school is not about curiosity, questions or freedom of thought. It is about how to listen, stay silent and applaud,” Negru wrote. “Listen! Stay silent! Applaud! That is the school’s first lesson. And from the formation begins the road to the cage.”

Nearly three million students and preschoolers returned to classrooms on Monday, Sept. 7. The new school year is arranged across 36 weeks and five learning modules, separated by holiday periods. The modular structure is intended to provide greater flexibility and a more balanced school rhythm.

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Listen! Stay silent! Applaud! That is the school’s first lesson. And from the formation begins the road to the cage.