The ban only concerns "students under the age of 15", who typically take notes on paper. The teacher can also make an exception for pedagogical purpose.

> There are exceptions in place for students with disabilities and for the educational use of devices in the classroom and in extra-curricular activities

Sure but they also use Google and Wikipedia etc.

Under 15? Not really, can use purely offline sources for that generic material. Good skill as well. Still should have a basic computing class though, perhaps wrapped into a library class.

In my experience all printed material is incomplete, obsolete, or one-sided and frequently all three.

That is not to talk about materials that can't be encoded as text, such as instructions and how-tos for whatever the French version of shop-class is.

You would propose that students be taught such subjects as the French revolution, based on what materials are available in the school library? How can you even ethically do that, when the kids probably can't even get the complete text of the Tennis court oath?

I very much doubt the historical consensus about French revolution changed in last 1-4 years since last high school history books were updated and printed.

> In my experience all printed material is incomplete, obsolete, or one-sided and frequently all three.

Maybe you should stop reading exclusively tabloids...

On a serious note, a middle schooler writing a report on the founding fathers will have plenty of resources available to them in the school library.

There are no computers in class in French schools AFAIK; there are computer classes but in normal class everyone takes notes on paper. I sure hope it stays this way for as long as possible.