I didn't go to school last Thursday because my schools were closed. No, it wasn't a holiday and we didn't have a snow day. My schools were closed because my teachers decided to strike. Many, though not all, teachers stayed at home on Thursday to express their discontent with the government's plan to eliminate some teaching positions. On Tuesday, teachers taped signs to the windows saying "For the future of our school, for the future of our students we're going on strike Thursday." A number of teachers staged a protest on Thursday afternoon to help bring awareness to their cause.
From an American perspective, this whole thing seems a little outrageous. Teachers very rarely go on strike in the States. A teachers' strike would leave working parents scrambling to find somewhere for their kids to spend the day. I don't think a teacher's strike would be received very sympathetically in the States. Rather, it's likely society and of the media would find the idea of striking - under the pretext of showing how much one cares about the future of the students - quite hypocritical.
But in France, strikes are a part of life, the primary way to express labor discontent. I get the impression that if the teachers didn't strike, their concerns would not really be considered legitimate. I think the attitude might be, Oh, well, maybe they're upset, but if they're not willing to strike about it they must not be that upset.
That's not to say that I'm convinced the strikes really do anything besides giving the TV crews something to film. Strikes are so common in France that they don't really carry the same weight as they do in other countries. And it seems to me like the government can't make any change without getting somebody upset and having them call a strike. It's just an accepted cost of making change, but an expensive one. My roommate who works for SNCF, the French railroad company, says each day the company's workers go on strike, it costs the company 20 million euros.
Monday, February 14, 2011
Thursday, February 10, 2011
Don't get on the wrong side of the Maitresse!
We can probably all remember our parents telling us stories about how school was different "back in their day." My parents' stories of strict discipline and stone-hearted teachers in 1960s New Jersey made me glad that I was a child of the 90s and thus not subject to shrieking teachers or corporal punishment. Sure, I remember my teachers getting upset (I may have been responsible once or twice...) but I don't remember many yelling teachers and there certainly were no episodes of teachers hitting students. In fact, I don't remember teachers ever touching students at all. It had been 13 years since I had set foot in a elementary school, but I assumed I would find a similar atmosphere here in France.
Well, I received a bit of a surprise on my first day here at school back in October. Two hours into my teaching experience in France I was standing outside with my new collegues at recess (yes, they have two recesses here - morning and afternoon) when a fourth grader came over complaining that one of the boys - lets call him "Pierre" - had pushed her to the ground. The teacher calmly called Pierre over...and then proceeded to yell at the top of her lungs about 6 inches from his face, completely furious. Unfortunately, I had no idea what she was saying, but I got the feeling she was going for style, not content. I didn't need to know what she was saying to get the message. After a good minute or two of this tongue-lashing, she grabbed Pierre by the shoulder and, with a snarl, gave him a shove of her own toward the fence where all the kids who are punished have to stand. Then she returned to the little circle of teachers sipping coffee and, with a smile, cracked a joke. I was taken aback because I could not imagine this episode playing out in the US. Kids would be crying, parents would be up in arms...it just wouldn't fly. But here it's par for the course. Teachers yell to get students' attention, to express their anger, to punish. But they also yell over seemingly trivial mistakes - a student wrote in blue what he should have written in black. If the student still doesn't respond, they give them a push. Literally.
Now I want to be clear that I've never seen teachers being violent by any means. But, from what I've observed in 3 schools and from what I've heard from other assistants and my French friends, yelling at and grabbing students is part of the school culture here. The question is, Is it a good thing or not?
After 4 months, the jury is still out for me. I see pros and cons. The negatives spring to mind first; it seems a little demeaning to yell at kids in school. And frankly, I'm not sure it works. The teachers who yell the most don't have the best-behaved classes. Their students hear screaming so much they just tune it out after a while. I'm not sure it creates the best atmosphere for learning, either. Discipline is most certainly necessary, and I'm not proposing that schools should be like summer camp - all fun and games and no work or responsibility - but I think kids learn best when they are comfortable and encouraged, not yelled at for making a mistake.
On the other hand, there are some advantages to the meaner, less warm-and-cuddly French school system. Kids develop a thick skin. I don't see a lot of crying at school. Kids just take it when they're getting yelled at. If they start to weep, they receive no compassion. There's no turning on the tear ducts to win some sympathy. At first I was a little taken aback, but then I thought of the other extreme at home, where kids are coddled. I think it's better to develop a thick skin early than to grow up expecting everything to go your way and for no one to ever hurt your feelings or get upset with you. In the States we pretend that "everybody's a winner" and try not to hurt anyone's feelings. In France, not so much.
Well, I received a bit of a surprise on my first day here at school back in October. Two hours into my teaching experience in France I was standing outside with my new collegues at recess (yes, they have two recesses here - morning and afternoon) when a fourth grader came over complaining that one of the boys - lets call him "Pierre" - had pushed her to the ground. The teacher calmly called Pierre over...and then proceeded to yell at the top of her lungs about 6 inches from his face, completely furious. Unfortunately, I had no idea what she was saying, but I got the feeling she was going for style, not content. I didn't need to know what she was saying to get the message. After a good minute or two of this tongue-lashing, she grabbed Pierre by the shoulder and, with a snarl, gave him a shove of her own toward the fence where all the kids who are punished have to stand. Then she returned to the little circle of teachers sipping coffee and, with a smile, cracked a joke. I was taken aback because I could not imagine this episode playing out in the US. Kids would be crying, parents would be up in arms...it just wouldn't fly. But here it's par for the course. Teachers yell to get students' attention, to express their anger, to punish. But they also yell over seemingly trivial mistakes - a student wrote in blue what he should have written in black. If the student still doesn't respond, they give them a push. Literally.
Now I want to be clear that I've never seen teachers being violent by any means. But, from what I've observed in 3 schools and from what I've heard from other assistants and my French friends, yelling at and grabbing students is part of the school culture here. The question is, Is it a good thing or not?
After 4 months, the jury is still out for me. I see pros and cons. The negatives spring to mind first; it seems a little demeaning to yell at kids in school. And frankly, I'm not sure it works. The teachers who yell the most don't have the best-behaved classes. Their students hear screaming so much they just tune it out after a while. I'm not sure it creates the best atmosphere for learning, either. Discipline is most certainly necessary, and I'm not proposing that schools should be like summer camp - all fun and games and no work or responsibility - but I think kids learn best when they are comfortable and encouraged, not yelled at for making a mistake.
On the other hand, there are some advantages to the meaner, less warm-and-cuddly French school system. Kids develop a thick skin. I don't see a lot of crying at school. Kids just take it when they're getting yelled at. If they start to weep, they receive no compassion. There's no turning on the tear ducts to win some sympathy. At first I was a little taken aback, but then I thought of the other extreme at home, where kids are coddled. I think it's better to develop a thick skin early than to grow up expecting everything to go your way and for no one to ever hurt your feelings or get upset with you. In the States we pretend that "everybody's a winner" and try not to hurt anyone's feelings. In France, not so much.
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