This is what my daughter's head teacher told her yesterday - a third way in to her final year at College and gearing up for the Brevet exams.
I don't know what members here think and I would be interested to know but for me, this approach is completely wrong and outdated. It has demoralised her. I have written a letter to the head teacher but I am at a loss as to what to do next. I have a younger son who will go to the same school.
This is one more in a long list of events at this school. Another example, though he vehemently denied it, a teacher forced her to bend down and pick up a book that he threw on the floor - just after she had returned to school after a very serious operation on her back for scoliosis. The list goes on and on. I am thinking of delivering stocks and gallows to strengthen their armoury.
in my letter I said: -
if you tell an adolescent they will achieve great things your prediction will probably come true in about 2% of cases. If you tell an adolescent "you are going to go nowhere" I suspect your prediction success rate will be 99% thus ensuring another statistic to the school's list of failures. But at least you have the personal satisfaction of being right.
Wow! This goes to the heart of the matter. As I read your contribution Emiiy Montes it is as if I have opened an unnoticed door and entered another world which is nevertheless familiar to me.
The way you put it suddenly makes sense. I have been reflecting on my anglo friends and their marriages, the birth of my son in a hospital here - the staff and so much more. I had never made the connection that you have made here. I have lived her all these years and never seen it - not sure I like what I see but on the other hand it empowers me, Now it all makes sense. Thank you so much for your thoughts. I hope your life is well despite. (deliberate omission of complementary objet direct! :)
Exactly the same situation Debra, parents in our case were all fobbed off with the excuse that the teacher was to take early retirement at the end of that year, surprise surprise, he never did!! That's why I went straight to the Academy but all that got me, or rather my son was a hateful end to the year being bullied by the teachers, it was a nightmare. They even tried to block his entry to his chosen Lycée by labelling him a troublemaker whereas he is quite the opposite, most gentle laid back character who is now thriving.
It beggars belief! And it goes to show who has the upper hand. We parents have NO comeback whatsoever. I would withdraw my child from a class if I felt any teacher to be a threat like that.
I did that with one subject - it was in an option - not a core subject though. I withdrew my daughter and she had to go to Permanence. The school didn#t even flinch. I guess they would if it was maths or French.
So frustrating. At least our kids have a let out - they could go back to the UK or US. I have known quite a few who have done that because of the education system. the poor French kids!
Weird are they suggesting a photographer be present in classes ? After all tehy would not allow the kids to use their camera-phones would they? No of course they are not - they are basically saying complaints will not be taken seriously. You must have been LIVID.
Egalité, Fraternité et Liberté when you actually think about their meaning, can never work well together! I'm not surprised about the response Amanda, it is the same in dismissing a teacher, in the case at my son's college, even for hitting a child, employment laws don't allow it and without photographic eveidence they won't do a thing!
GET THIS: Rang Rectorat today to ask about transferring my daughter to another school. They say I cannot do that unless the situation is very serious or I am moving. Even then I have to get their permission with a written explanation of why the transfer is required and I am unlikely to get it based on what I said.
Of course, It doesn't work both ways though - they can expel a child at the drop of a hat. Home education seems more and more enticing (except the maths!). I am free to take her to a private school of course.
No wonder the functionnaires in schools are free to ride roughshod over their students and crush them to within an inch of their lives. I am wholly frustrated.
Egailte, liberte, fraternite! Those words sound very hollow to me today.
Thank you for all your responses. I AM reading them and will reply once have gone through them all. Very very grateful to each and every contributor. This is a great site. FB is useful but most of my FB friends don't know about life here.
I teach at the Ecole de Design here in Les Landes. The school is quite recent but is thriving and has gained international accreditation and this year, for the first time, they are running an MA course. All of the first batch of leavers that I taught last year have found jobs / set up in business themselves.
My current MA students are also going on a three / four month internship to an English speaking country next year so will hopefully be pretty employable by the end of it.
Strange isn't it. I skipped the maximum amount of school. Refused to keep kept in for detentions. Defied the head and deputy-head and avoided being caned. Did not and would not do 'lines'. I profoundly hated school but had a photographic memory that passed all except exams like maths and sciences that I disliked and could not learn for that reason. In the end the headmaster gave me a glowing reference for my university application. Perhaps it was also because I did four 'A's a year early and he was anticipating more making me the highest number in my year.
However, our French teacher Mr Green, known by one and all as Bert Verte, had it in for me. His French was, I imagine, perfect. At least that is how it looked when we did our 1961 Paris trip. He, however, only had French and a bit of other this and that. I was bilingual in another language, loved Latin, was OK at Greek and soon started reading French literature. He seriously had to put me down. It was not that I was better than him or anything like that, more a case of my being totally nonchalant about languages. What he did not know about was my memory and how I learned a large part of what I knew parrot-fashion. So he took every opportunity to ask me questions in class that I usually answered which annoyed him no end. He was totally opposed to me doing 'A' level French because I was doing another language and nobody needed more than one modern language. So I went to the head and asked him why? I took the exam and passed.
The point. This was early 1960s. Not my child, but a friend's son at college is similarly equipped with memory to me. Because he appears indifferent to just about everything but then comes out 'top' nonetheless he has teachers treating him like some kind of bad influence on his fellow pupils, a kind of school rebel who needs to be watched and punished for anything they can do him for. What is the main problem? My friend is a journalist and has written a couple of things criticising French education for not daring to be more exciting for children.
What is happening to the son is about his father. The consequence is that the 14 year old son is at 'war' with his teachers and in his way is going to end up being a little like me or do some of the things I did. I am old enough to look back and see I was excessive but then the school was too. However, I could have put my head down and shut up with much the same outcome since I had no real need to 'study'. This young fellow is starting to wonder what the heck school is about and thinks that lycée and then study are going to be equally as stressful so is considering getting out of education at the first possible opportunity. That would be a win for the teachers who are getting at him and possibly put him on the wrong track for the rest of his life because he may well end up resenting what happened and simultaneously regret leaving it. I talked to him a while ago and told him how when I went to study it all changed and that I enjoyed it so much I stayed on for most of the rest of my working life. Being his age he shrugged and was not impressed. Perhaps he will persevere, I hope so, but why and how can some teachers still be the way they were half a century ago in what aspires to be a modern country?
well we all learn something new everyday hopefully ! and having been in the business 18 years im glad things have moved on from the pin holed jobs of yesteryear!
art is a very very broad spectrum these days and is a growth area in most countries and that doesnt just mean computors! and im sure this is why the art is being enouraged in schools as they realie the potential. I have and still do work across the arts from being a practising artist, lecturer, arts consultant, interior designer and managing projects which touch everywalk of life with a creative element must as the reative partneships projects did in the uk. So to suggest someone goes into art as a career is not foolhardy !!
In similar vein, many years ago my school had compulsory French lessons given by a nasty little man. He took pleasure in helping me conjugate verbs by thumping me on my back. After a few weeks of this I retaliated by thumping him. He demanded my expulsion & I demanded the police as he was assaulting me. The result was a compromise in which I abandoned French lessons in exchange for art. Funny old world innit? Here I am now, living in France, speaking French to everybody except my missus & I still can't paint or draw for the life of me. I often wonder if the French teaching sadist is turning in his grave:-)
firstly suggesting someone goes into Fine Art as a career move is foolhardy or optimistic in the extreme. Yes, once in a while someone makes it but as noted the vast majority live hand to mouth at best. Just for reference I spent a very large part of my working life as an Illustrator/Commercial Artist (even the terms show how old I am!). My jobs and times are now long past and in Ad Agencies and studios these days creativity has moved into the electronics world - and why not?
I would suggest you look for training courses in Computer Design where artistic ability has shifted to different tools (and far easier ones). You don't specifically say how old your daughter is, Amanda, or even if she is so artistically inclined, but there is no doubt that developing and enjoying computer technology in a practical sense is a very good idea on all levels - except wasting time on computer games (and mobile phones!!!) which is a now specialist field.
There is an urban legend similar to the Robbie Williams contribution. A young man was told by a teacher that he would not amount to anything or something similar. He went on to establish a chain of pubs and decided to name the business after the teacher - Wetherspoon.
I have seen a lot of posts about moving children between schools, which has turned out to be successful. I have heard that this practice is Ok at primary level but a bad idea when they are at secondary level. What do you think?
In our case our son was the only english pupil in the class but most of the french parents had also complained to no avail, some of them even came to me for advise as to what to do!!
Whatever the reason, bullying in school, especially from the teachers is not acceptable.