In Defence of French Schools...

I try to be as fair as possible with France and French related matters, but I didn't think an article I read last week was very fair.

As while I sympathise with this British mother when she says her son's experience at a French school was a nightmare, and although I know she is particularly focussing on younger children, I cannot say that I particularly agree with some of the points she makes in this paragraph: "School in France has no assembly, no school plays, no music, no clubs. There is a hastily thrown-together entertainment at Christmas. There is no pastoral care. Children go through the system and emerge with a body of knowledge, and everything else is down to the parents." 

"There is no pastoral care": I can't remember what it was like in primary school, but there definitely are structures in place for older kids - from year 7 onwards, and social workers. So while there are no "Pastoral Care" as such, there are ways for the children to find help if they need any. This system is not perfect, but it works most of the time. I have witnessed it myself. 

"No music, no club" There is a compulsory music lesson from year 7 (so aged 10 and above) before that, it is down to the school policy and resources aka how skilled the staff is. I was in several clubs in my older years, including theatre and film club.

"No school plays" Well, until I was 15, we didn't have a play as such but several years we had fund raisers (to help kinds from poorer families to afford to go on school trips) where the pupils had a chance to show off their skills: singing, dancing, stand up, etc. And that started when I was at primary school. The parents were always as heavily involved as the teachers (see point below).

It was great fun to prepare and a good way to interact with your teachers. My theatre club during my Lycée years (last 3 years of school) had a different play each year.

In CP (cours primaire, aged six), Gabe and his class sat at individual desks" Well, I had a neighbour, unfortunately, from my first day at school to my last.

"Everything else is down to the parents". Errr, trust me. No. Parents rely on the schools too much (in my opinion) nowadays to educate their kids. It should be a shared job, and it was when I was at school. But for many families, it's not.

I don't think the French schools are perfect, far from it. Having had the chance to work in a British school, I have to say that I really liked the assembly, and the club structures seemed a bit more organised. And I am a big fan of school uniform. But if I were 11 again and had to choose, I don't think I would pick a British school, especially for the last few years. 

Yes, it was tough (cue violin music): I was at school for 40hrs a week and had 7hrs of philosophy per week in my last year, but I think that the general knowledge I got out of it was much better than the one I would have just picking 4 subjects in total. 

I never thought when I was 14 that learning Latin would be useful in my current career, and if you'd told my 16 year old self that studying biology would help me get promoted, she would have laughed. And all these efforts learning irregular Spanish verbs have eventually paid off.

I am now happy I had to study for my baccalauréat what seemed then irrelevant subjects instead whichever few ones I would have picked back then. 

It probably makes me more able to win some random general knowledge quiz :)