there is a new book out in france which is causing waves. “on acheve bien les ecoliers” is by peter gumbel, a british professor at the very prestigious french “grand ecole” science polytechnique (referred to as “science po”). he noticed that his students had a lack of self confidence, even though they were brilliant and the best in the country. he was happy that his own kids would go through the french school system, which has a reputation for turning out a highly educated population. however, as his kids progressed, he was amazed at the stress they seemed be under and that they had regular head-aches and stomach aches because of it. he was shocked at the ambiance in the schools that could be summed up by a phrase that the teachers often used to the children “t’es null”. translated literally as “you are zero” it means “you are useless”. he then did research on various studies done on school systems around the developed world. i was excited that he would be giving a talk at our school. it was a very interesting lecture and i laughed to find out that in fact, he is a dad at our school, so the experience his children were having with stress in the french educational system is in OUR school! he spoke very diplomatically about his book and his kids’ experience, since there were school faculty present in the lecture. i am seeing more and more people who are critical of the school, yet respectful of its high reputation, and appreciative of its strengths. his criticism is more towards the government run ministry of education, the school culture and the grading system.
more background:
our school is considered one of the best in france and very ambitious parents kill to have their kids in it. apparently there are a number of type-A parents, though i haven’t met them yet. i am still a bit isolated with the expat parents. jj had an easier time getting in than any french kid, because the adaptation program is considered a center piece of the school and they need international kids, especially english speaking ones. the kids do have to prove themselves as good students, but it certainly is the easiest way to get in. the rest of the school population is divided into 1/3 english speaking families, 1/3 french speaking families and 1/3 other language families. with so many more applications from locals, this makes the chances for a french kid to get in, very, very tough.
there was another school crisis that did not involve jj. there are 2 french language classes for the adaptation kids. we were told that one was more advanced than the other, but with the backgrounds of the mix of kids that doesn’t seem true. both classes seem to have total beginners along with kids who have a french parent and speak quite well. there have been several shocking stories about the teacher in the “advanced” class. one child was asked in class what she liked to do, and answered “i like to eat” (even though she doesn’t really) and the teacher retorted “that’s why you’re so fat!”. of course, this child is actually very thin and i think it was probably meant as a joke, but these days one shouldn’t comment on a girl’s weight like that.
in addition, this teacher made some other comments which were a bit racist towards the asians in the class. i think she may have thought she was being funny, and her humor may have been acceptable in france 50 years ago. however, this is an international school with kids from all over the world, a school whose mission is to "develop international understanding through bilingual education starting in the nursery years". i was puzzled. to me, the teacher is the school. i assumed that the school, knew these teachers and their style and condoned them. however, many parents complained to the parent group who met with the principal, and this particular teacher was corrected.
back to the lecture:
chatting to some parents and listening to the lecture itself this evening revealed some important clues to me, on my search to understand the secrets of this strange, intense school culture and how the teachers could be the way they are.
1) it turns out that teachers are NOT employees of the school, but of the “ministry of education”. they answer to the government and that is who is their boss. the teacher is assigned to the school and the school cannot fire the teacher; they can only complain to the ministry and in extreme cases, request that a teacher to be transferred.
2) the teachers primary job objective is NOT the education of the children, but rather to follow the program set out by the ministry – which is a day to day schedule of the curriculum. on any given day, they should be teaching specifically what is scheduled for that day. the ministry sends out inspectors to sit in the classrooms and a teacher will get in big trouble for not teaching the scheduled lesson. this perhaps insures a certain measurable standard for the curriculum but does not guarantee that the children will learn anything.
3) lack of pedagogical training – apparently there was an official training program for teachers at one time, but the old version was thrown out for the new version which was very unsuccessful, and so that was thrown out too. apparently, nothing has replaced that. the previous training insured that the teachers were competent in their subject but not necessarily in teaching. many had no actual class experience before being put in the classroom. this is similar to graduate students teaching college classes – with no teaching experience. so, at this time, there is no pedagogical training at all.
through the lecture, one could almost feel the collective of parents breathing a sigh of relief that someone had publicly said what they were thinking all along, and then actually support it with data. though, there were a few questionable charts and statements and one can always doubt the manipulation of data for desired conclusions.
one mom, who has been very successful in creating the parent organization which works closely with the school (which in itself is unheard of, in the normal french school system)– suggested that we raise money to buy a copy of his book for each teacher in the school and have mr. gumbel give a similar talk to all of them. (there were very few teachers present). the woman who seems to be the public face of the school spoke of her frustrated attempts over the years to help reform the national school system and her efforts to move this particular school forward towards enlightenment. the fact that this book has made such waves and caused discussions is a good sign that perhaps france is ready for things to start changing.
at the end of the evening, there was a feeling of hope for the future.
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