Part 1 \u00bb<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\nAt the end of our girls\u2019 first day of school, the teachers flowed out onto the sidewalk in front of the school to greet parents. We\u2019re amazed at this easy, casual school culture \u2013 again, not what we were expecting. Julie had predicted that Nathalie and Erika\u2019s English skills would set them apart and she was right. Nathalie\u2019s teacher, Monsieur Jelila, told us he wanted to keep her in his class \u201cfor purely selfish reasons\u201d \u2013 she could help him teach English! At a parent-teacher meeting the next week, no less than four parents asked the same question: \u201cHow much English instruction will there be?\u201d No other subject provoked as much interest.<\/p>\n
Republican Education<\/h3>\n
The first day after school, Erika asks us why her school didn\u2019t have a name. It\u2019s a bit hard to explain to a 10-year-old with almost no references in French culture, but we tried. Historically, part of the \u201cprogram\u201d of France\u2019s national education system \u2013 which dates back to the 19th century \u2013 was to break up parish identities, elites, networks and other factions that competed with the single, national, French identity promulgated since the French Revolution. Schools in Quebec are often named after the parishes where they are located. In France, they have the name of the street where they are located. So our school is l\u2019\u00e9cole de la rue de l\u2019Arbal\u00e8te. Period.<\/p>\n
Flexibility<\/h3>\n
Again, our experience with the French Republic had taught us to expect rigidity and regimentation. We weren\u2019t totally wrong \u2013 kids call their teacher Ma\u00eetre (master). But Nathalie and Erika\u2019s teachers actually turned out to have completely different approaches and philosophies. Erika\u2019s teacher, Madame Petit, wants her kids to develop at their own pace, without undue pressure. Her motto seems to be, \u201cC\u2019est pas grave\u201d (\u201cNo big deal\u201d). Nathalie\u2019s teacher, Monsieur Jelila, isn\u2019t interested in following the program. He has a big, colourful personality and appears to scorn authority in some instances as passionately as he adheres to it in others. We are anxious to see if our girls will actually end up learning the same thing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Jean-Beno\u00eet Nadeau & Julie Barlow Part 1 \u00bb At the end of our girls\u2019 first day of school, the teachers flowed out onto the …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":9735,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[59,53,17],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nadeaubarlow.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9734"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nadeaubarlow.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nadeaubarlow.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nadeaubarlow.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nadeaubarlow.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9734"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/nadeaubarlow.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9734\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9746,"href":"https:\/\/nadeaubarlow.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9734\/revisions\/9746"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nadeaubarlow.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9735"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nadeaubarlow.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9734"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nadeaubarlow.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9734"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nadeaubarlow.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9734"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"BacktoSchool;jpg\"](\"https:\/\/nadeaubarlow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/BacktoSchooljpg.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n