Checking In

Once again I have been leaving the writing up to Virginia but I think it is time for me to add a few things from what has been transpiring for us here.

When I think back to my parent's visit in December to the Mistral winds that were almost literally blowing them and Grace off Rochers Des Doms, I thought that this wasn't what I signed up for when I moved to southern France.  Friday on the other hand was exactly what I  envisioned Provence to be like.  Beautiful sunshine and 16 degrees Celcius.  Virginia and I don't have classes right now so we enjoyed a leisurely day of wandering the streets and relishing the warmth.

Last Sunday morning, the girls and I went swimming with a friend and his daughter.  Being in the pool with the girls was great fun.  The rest of the pool was filled with people attempting to swim lengths by dodging each other as it was a veritable free for all in the pool.  The one lane that was set aside had all levels of swimmers in it and my friend actually got into quite a heated discussion with a lady that was leisurely doing lengths in the one lane.  The one lifeguard came over and tried to settle the two of them down just as the lady was telling my friend to imagine a spot on the far wall and swim towards it.  Francois replied that when he lived in Canada they would have three lanes open for different levels.  The lifeguard said that that sounded like a good idea but that she didn't have the right to set the pool up like that.  Francois later told me that one of the problems in France is that with such a focus on la liberté, it is hard to tell anyone what to do and arrive at some sense of order.

Even without classes we have been managing to keep busy.  This past Tuesday I was lucky enough to spend the day at a local lycée (high school).  A friend teaches Japanese to one of the teachers at the school and had asked her if I could pay a visit to the school.  It was certainly a good opportunity for me to see how the French education system differs from ours.  I had a tough time sleeping as I was a little nervous going into a new environment.  For the first time in quite a long time I had the off to work butterflies as I stepped out into the rain at 7:30 in the morning.  With the rain it was almost too close to a real workday in Mission so I nearly ran back to the house to climb back into bed.  The contact teacher met me out front and immediately took me into the staff room to meet her colleagues.  When I was introduced to the director of the school as coming from Canada, he quickly stated that Canada's education system was known in France to be the best in the world.  It was interesting to hear that perspective.

The first class I went to was a terminale S-section math class.  In France the levels are counted down as opposed to up. When you finish you are in your last year as opposed to your 12th year.  This was a group of students in their last year of school, in the Science stream.  One major difference between our two systems is the age at which students make decisions that will affect their entire lives.  After their first year of high school (age 15) students choose (or are selected as if your marks are not high enough then you are unable to choose the Science section) one of the academic streams (Science, Economics or Literature).  The Science stream is seen as the preferential choice as it is the only stream that does not close any career options for students upon completion of high school.  For example a student graduating from the Science stream can study law at university whereas an Economics or Literature graduate is unable to go into medicine.  If your marks are not high enough for an academic stream then you move to a technology stream that is more trades oriented.  Another major difference are the class sizes.  The math class had 36 students with room for 4 more.  At one point in the day I was in a class of 42!  Makes my classes of 28-30 back home seem almost manageble.

Once I sat down and was introduced, the boy in front of me let me know that his classmate was celebrating his birthday.  Never one to shy away and as Grace would say always looking for a new best friend, I proceeded to lead the class in a boisterous Happy Birthday to Adrian!  Once the class began I found out that the young man sitting beside me was repeating his year as he had not passed his math section on his BAC exam.  At the end of their final year, students write 6, four hour exams that comprise the BAC or high school diploma.  If they pass some courses but their average mark is not a pass, they repeat the entire year, not just the courses they failed!  This can be a real difficulty for students as each course is weighted differently so failing math (which is weighted very high) has the potential to undermine the entire year.

One thing I was expecting were very strict and traditional teaching styles however this was not the case at all.  All of the teachers I saw had a great rapport with their students and I could have easily been in a high school classroom in Canada.

A couple of things that are quite common in a Canadian high school were nowhere to be seen at the lycée.  I did not see one phone all morning nor did I see one student arrive late to class.  That is certainly something I would love to see back home.

All in all it was a very interesting day and I really enjoyed being back in the classroom.