ecole

In 2010 the kids had - by far - the most challenging transition ever. We took them out of their nice, cozy loving English language based school and thrust them into the cruel world of French public education. It wasn’t an easy decision but after some thought we decided it was best that the kids attend the local village school. At ages (just) 5 and 7 we figured that the kids still had a window to assimilate with the French students and learn the language. After a year we realize that Seth is just about at the maximum age to make the transition. It is a very strict system and there is little tolerance – or maybe time - for those who don’t conform to the system. I know this varies from region to region, village to village, teacher to teacher but we are in a situation where it wouldn’t have worked at age 9, 10 or beyond. We have been lucky this year. I wouldn’t say the kids are close to fluent in French but they can certainly get by very wellor even a bit more. They have made friends, done well academically and put in a huge effort to learn the language.

Maternelle

It is a funny little school. Fiona is in what they call the ‘Maternelle’. It consists of petite, moyenne and grande sections. She came in as a grande and pretty much reviewed some preschool work while adding to skills. Much like kindergarten but surrounded by smaller kids. She was in a ‘mixed class’ of nearly 30 kids – both grande and moyenne. This environment provided Fiona with plenty of play time where she could pick up the language in context. From day one Fiona seemed quite happy. She even had an English speaking friend from the village in her class – this made her feel quite comfortable. It is a strict environment – no question about it. But Fiona has asked questions all year long and has become quite comfortable with her maitresses. She even passed the entrance exam to first grade. These results will remain in her file for life now… Seriously they have a file that starts at age 3. There was an in class assessment that she did quite well on - and then I had to take her to a larger town to meet with a doctor/nurse team who asked her a number of questions (lifestyle, math, science, health, matching, rhyming, etc.) We got off to a rough start – she couldn’t name any colors. Then I realized Fiona and I were speaking English to each other but we were both speaking in French to the nurse. As soon as Fiona and I switched to French (although I was using bad French in a bad accent) she perked up and was able to answer all the questions and did quite well. I find that Fiona needs to be in one language or the other – she really doesn’t like to use both at the same time.

Primaire

At the Maternelle level the school serves three villages – ours included. But when moving up the ecole primaire where Seth is studying - each town has its own school. We arrived to sign Seth up for the first day of school and the directress seemed stressed. Seth was going into a huge class. 10 kids. Wow I thought – great student teacher ratio… Then we found out that there are only two teachers in the school for the five grades – they basically divided the kids up into two groups based on age and voila. Ecole.

Seth was placed into the third grade (France uses calendar year to divide up grades). So over the summer he went from first grade in English right on to third grade in French. I tried explaining to the teacher (Madame L) that this wouldn’t work. But no. He had to remain in CE2 (the equivalent of third grade) on orders from someone in the education office at the sous-prefecture. Once he failed we could make a case for holding him back. She admitted that Seth was the first English speaking child she had ever taught and that she herself spoke very limited English. No special programs were available and she made it clear it was our job to teach him French. Her job was to teach French children – not teach children how to speak French. This of course was all in French – as she had also been given orders to speak to us only in French and never use English. We all celebrated two weeks later when Seth failed so miserably that he was brought into CE1 (second grade). Nothing like celebrating failure to move ahead with something. The teacher literally moved him from the CE2 row over to the CE1 row. Now he was between the CP (first grade) and CE2 (third grade). We agreed to start him with a tutor to supplement his language acquisition.

Transition

I think school was more of a shock for Seth. It is a far stricter environment than he is used to. Structure, order and memorization are the keys to success. At least he came in with one of the keys…. Our first hurdle was handwriting. I think his teacher said something like ‘your son writes like an animal. Actually a wild animal’ and we left it at that. Writing drills became routine. Math was harder and faster. Silence was required. PE consisted of running around the building faster and faster – avoiding roots in the dirt path and cracks in the blacktop. None of the kids spoke a word of English.

Seth was distressed and things were rough. About a month in he claimed he couldn’t understand anything and wouldn’t do any work. After an intervention at school and home, plus moving him next to the smartest girl in the class, things started to look up. The more he could understand the higher his confidence and soon he was scoring TB (and tres bien) and B+ on his grammar tests. Every week at school they have a grammar rule – last week was ‘regle 22G l’adjectif qualificatif’. Memorizing has always been his strength. Soon he was passing spelling tests – although the first time he did the teacher accused him of cheating. She didn’t think he was ready for the test and didn’t give him the list. I was able to get the spelling list from another mother and he memorized the words (in English too) and passed the test. Then it was on to dictees and auto-dictees (a dictation in which the teacher simply says ‘go’ and the students must write what they have memorized the day before). Poems were memorized, songs were sung (including the theme from Weeds). He even counted past eighty. Explaining to Seth that 99 was said “four twenties ten nine” was not an easy task. He made friends – people were interested in learning English and talking to him about the US. The kids were amazing with him – they really took him on as a project and helped him learn. I went on one of the school outings with the entire school and found that it was more like a family (about half of the kids are cousins).

Seth even got into trouble at school the other day for messing around with friends in class. Nothing serious – that tells me he is doing OK. His punishment was quite interesting - he had to write ‘I will not play in class’ ten times and have me sign it. He saw it is a bad thing – I saw it as more handwriting practice. The teacher has told me that he is quite well behaved – after meeting some of the other kids it really shouldn’t be too hard for him. One of his classmates gets ‘sent to the principal’s office’ at least twice a week. Interestingly the school is basically two classrooms – and no principal’s office. I asked Seth about ‘the principal’ and it seems the kids get sent to the mayor’s office or they get a talking to by the religion teacher.

It has been a year of ups and downs. Both kids have been challenged as have Aimee and I. The schedule has been a major challenge… The kids are in school in the morning and afternoon but spend two hours at home for lunch. And of course there is no school on Wednesdays. And in our village substitute teachers are about as rare as say a good bagel or standard size appliances. If the teacher (or the teacher’s kid) is sick – NO SCHOOL!

I am truly shocked and surprised at what kids can take. I think both can understand French fairly well now. Not fluent but leaps and bounds ahead of where they were in September. Both have made some close friends and have been invited to plenty of parties and playdates. Very different playdates for the kids - dropped Seth off at a friends house one time and the family was quite excited since the 'colza' harvest was in and they were going to their farm to watch the colza being pressed into oil...and check out the new tractor.

And Seth is no longer writing like a savage beast – more like a pet cat or dog. When discussing Fiona with Seth’s teacher (Fiona AND Seth will be in Madame L’s class next year) I warned her that she might have another handwriting challenge on her hands. ‘Mais Non!’ She said… ‘Handwriting won’t be a problem as she is learning our beautiful French cursive in Maternelle.’ (Not your silly anglo-scratch) I didn’t think my writing was that bad. Next year should be interesting with Fiona in CP (first grade) and Seth in CE2 (third grade). I am glad to know that the row of six CE1 kids will separate them… They have strict instructions to NOT speak English at school...I wonder what sort of punishment the teacher will come up with if they do speak in English. We’ll see how things go next year.