School reflections

On the chalkboard heading into school one recent morning....

For ages I've been meaning to put together a post on how school has gone for the boys this year. We're fast approaching their final day (July 3rd), so I thought I'd better get down my reflections before we leave and the memories begin to fade.

Last September, Jesse and I sent the boys off for their first day of school with cautious optimism (okay, okay...it was closer to white-knuckled anxiety!). (See post here.) They hardly spoke a word of French, and we told them just to do whatever the other kids did—praying that they'd muddle along somehow. Well, pretty much from Day 1, Josiah was happy and comfortable. He made friends quickly, started picking up the language naturally, and has surprised us time after time with what he's learned and done.

Josiah in the big tunnel that goes under the hillside in the school playground.

William took a little longer to come around. For most of the fall he was very sad at drop-off, and he routinely told us that he did "not speak French." But he turned a corner at Christmastime and for the past six months has been happy as a clam at school (and frequently cheeky as a monkey too...but fortunately his teacher is quite fond of him regardless!). He's learned to write his name in cursive, understands most of what la maîtresse says nowadays, and in fact has become something of a little rock star amongst the 4 and 5 year olds. We hear his classmates shouting "Will-yahm!" when we drop him off at the playground after lunch each day. His confidence has grown by leaps and bounds.

William being his goofy self with the wonderful Madame Rouillard, his teacher.

Needless to say, we're proud of both boys. I hope this experience will be one we can refer back to in the future when they face hard things. "Remember how scary it was to start school in France?" we'll be able to say. "You did that! And you can do this tough thing too."

We're especially thankful to have been in a great little school with wonderful staff. Our town and area aren't exactly affluent, plus French teachers have something of a reputation for sternness (that can border on meanness, by some accounts), so we feel incredibly fortunate for the warmth and excellence we've encountered.

As for more general observations, goodness, I could write a book. School is just different here, plus our lifestyle in general operates differently from how it does back home, so it's hard to know where to start. But bottom line, having young children in this system has been perfect for us this year.

Josiah pointing out the bird feeder he made with his pal Noé. They had to measure
the boards, saw the wood, and screw it together by hand. 

What I most like is the balance of structured and unstructured time both boys experience. They have a good recess both morning and afternoon in addition to a 90-minute lunch/play break at midday when most kids stay at school but ours always come home. They also have sports at least one afternoon each week...sometimes just at school, but equally as often they are bused off for swimming lessons, judo, track and field, large group games, etc. This sort of active time does wonders for kids' concentration when they need to focus and work in the classroom—a developmental truth for all young children but especially so for boys, and definitely so for my highly active offspring! As both a developmental psychologist and as a mother, it gets my seal of approval.  :)  Play, especially unstructured active play, is so badly lacking in most schools back home.

Each of the three daily breaks are spent outdoors, even in drizzle, and the play space isn't a small, highly structured, sanitized (i.e., American!) style one. There's room for running around and for playing soccer, there are balls and jump ropes and other gear, a ping pong table, plus bikes and trikes for the littler kids. And since the school is built on a hillside, there's a super steep grassy incline and a a massive boulder retaining wall for clambering all over. It's an area I'm 100% sure would be fenced off back home as horrifically dangerous—and of course every child adores it here. (I could go on and on about the benefits of slightly dangerous play for children, but this isn't the time or place.)

I was talking to Josiah about school a couple of weeks ago, and he observed, "When we're working, we work HARD. But we get a lot of fun time. Way more than in America." I asked him if he thought he learned less because they spend so much less time sitting in desks doing "proper" learning. He said he thought they learned just as much, but it wasn't as boring because they did it so much faster! He said every kid knows that when Monsieur Caussin is teaching, they'd sure better pay attention.

On that last point, there's definitely a focus on respect here. Children are taught to greet adults, politely saying "bonjour" to the teacher as they enter the class each morning, "bon appetite" or "à tout à l'heure" when they leave for lunch, and "à demain" at the end of the day. And the teachers have no problem telling children off very sternly in front of the class, sending them into a younger classroom for an hour or two for misbehavior, and so on. Now, I have no interest in ever seeing a child shamed or abused, but I have to say it's been kind of refreshing to see teachers unfettered by fears of lawsuits or the tongue-lashing of helicoptering parents. They're able to require obedience and respect in their classrooms, and I haven't met a parent who's bothered by the typical methods. Perhaps we're just lucky to be in a school where no one takes it too far. For the record, Josiah has never had even a shade of a run-in with the law. William has, but if anything it's done him good.  :)

William with his buddy Evan on a recent play-date.

Josiah and Noé (gotta love that teeny Garfield tee!)

Josiah and another copain, Nolan. I sent Nolan home that day with some fresh-baked American-style chocolate chip cookies, which aren't typical here. A few days later he said his dad wanted the recipe, please!

As for content and instruction, much of what the children do is akin to what I'd expect back home, and nicely varied and hands-on. When learning about basic plant biology, for example, Josiah's class all had to bring rubber boots to school for several days so they could create a garden (starting with digging out a patch from the grass, not an easy job). Of course there are differences from home too. For instance, it's been almost amusing to see how much emphasis is placed on writing, penmanship, and general pen-and-paper skills—perhaps no surprise in a country that prizes paperwork as France does! The children start cursive at age 5, and Josiah has become a whiz with a ruler and a compass, making beautiful and intricate designs. Both boys have a mountain of notebooks, folders, and dossiers that capture their many lessons this year. Yet they've also learned a great deal that isn't captured on paper. The language is obviously the biggest gain of that sort. Josiah's accent is just lovely, and he reads French nearly as well as English at this point...even when he doesn't understand what he's reading.  :)

One final thing we've appreciated here is how well the teachers adjust instruction to each child and, at this age anyway, aren't "teaching to a test" in any discernible way. William's class has around 25 kids from ages 4 through 6; it's a maternelle with both "moyen section" and "grand section" children, equivalent to pre-K and kindergarten. Josiah's class is a similar size with ages 6 through 8, covering "CP" and "CE1," equivalent to first and second grade. The teachers are accustomed to having a range of ages and abilities, and rather than expecting everyone to be at (or get to) the same level, they leave a ton of room for variability and individual paces. Josiah's the top math kid in his class and does challenging math work with just three other kids, but of course he's way down near the bottom when it comes to French grammar so is with a different set of kids and expectations there. Both boys have gotten supplemental French instruction, Josiah especially, which we never expected or asked for.

Well, this post is terribly long and I should stop; I doubt many people are reading any longer! But suffice it to say we've been thankful for a great school year. Both boys have grown tremendously, and we couldn't be more thankful for the school nor more proud of their work.